CERAMICS
CONFERENCE
#City of Ceramics #Keramik #Diskurs
Kunstuniversität Linz – Abteilung Plastische Konzeptionen/Keramik, Verein zur Förderung Europäischer Keramikkünstler:Innen, Kulturhauptstadt 2024
The city of Gmunden partnered with the University of Art and Design Linz, Department of Sculptural Conceptions / Ceramics invite a number of contemporary artists to Gmunden within a two day conference in order to discuss their relationships towards ceramics.
There is a reawakened interest in ceramics which has turned the ceramic material from a craft related or industrial material into one of the hottest materials within the arts. As the University of Art and Design Linz offers the only contemporary artistic degree program with a focus on ceramics in Austria, it is necessary to reflect on the current situation but also on possible future developments. This is even more important because the amount of ceramics focused departments in art colleges and universities across Europe has declined in recent years, as material focused departments shift to accommodate more digital and media-oriented approaches.
Through inviting a broad panel of artists to Gmunden, we will delve into artistic practices and attitudes, discussing whether ceramics can still be seen as a counterweight to an increasing digitisation, counteracting a loss of tangibility in the world; looking at transformations and developments between a traditionally craft based medium sitting on the borders of contemporary art, to a revival and pushing of the artisanal through a new lens. Through looking at ceramics as more than just a material, we can question its position moving forward and explore what conceptual changes might be seen in the future.
24/05 – 25/05/2024
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Seeschloss Ort,
4810 Gmunden
Registration required!
The event will be held in English
Day #1 Friday 24/05
Speculative tradition
Ceramic objects are particularly suitable for preserving a cultural heritage. This has to do with the fact that ceramic objects have surrounded us every day for thousands of years. Our cultures, our heritages and our histories are therefor continuously inscribed in them through use. Due to its material properties and its durability, fragmented objects being excavated and exhumed after thousands of years in the earth share these histories with us today. In addition there is a rich in heritage of ceramic techniques which still is alive.
Many artists working with ceramic materials relate their work to this tradition not in order to keep tradition alive but to correlate it with the world of today. In this sense the reference to ceramic tradition is not only an opportunity to dissect and analyse our pasts furthermore it raises questions about the contemporary world. The interest or appreciation shown for ceramics these days will also bring up the question to what extents ceramics have the potential to speculate about possible futures in our relation to these materials with all their historic qualities.
Scedule Day #1 Friday 24/05
10:00 Greetings by Mayor Stefan Krapf and
Head of Cultural Affairs Dr Andreas Hecht
10:30 Introduction Day #1 by Dr. Rainald Franz, Curator and ceramics specialist
11:00 Liz Craft
12:00 Giles Round
13:00 Lunch break, midday pause
14:00 Matthew Lutz Kinoy
15:00 Thu-Van Tran
16:00 Panel discussion led by Dr. Rainald Franz, Curator and ceramics specialist
Day #2 Saturday 25/05
Revolutionary Tradition (Radical openness)
Artists can approach and work with the medium of clay from a wide variety of attitudes. For some, it is a material who’s specialist, more technical approach is the key to its artistic outcome. For others, the ceramic material is a conceptual world of its own, in which it represents its own value to discover new things again and again. But there are also artist using the qualities of the ceramic materials in their work without even touching clay. Instead these artists cooperate with specialised companies which produce their work.
A crucial point to look at will be the use of modern, and specially digital techniques. Clay has been regarded as a counterweight to increasing digitisation because touching clay connects us to the surrounding material world in a way nearly no other material can. So the current popularity of clay is a result of the lack of experience of materiality. On the other side there is an increasing number of artists researching and sharing on new techniques which can create a competence and sensibility of medium which can bolster and support these artistic positions.
Since there are no right or wrong ways to approach the material of clay here, nor one specific way of working with it, the aim of the second day will be to show a range of cultural attitudes, positions, and artistic practices which push clay to new limits, exploring new approaches to working with the materia
Scedule Day #2 Saturday 25/05
10:00 Introduction Day #2 by Ranti Tjan, Curator and ceramics specialist
11:00 Jennifer Teets
12:00 Isabelle Andriessen
13:00 Lunch break, midday pause
14:00 Mire Lee
15:00 Lindsey Mendick
16:00 Future perspectives by Genoveva Rückert & Veronika Schreck (OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH)
17:30 Panel discussion led by Ranti Tjan, Curator and ceramics specialist
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