20 mondes. IAC Treasure Bowl Collections I-II at Keramis - Center for Ceramics, La Louvière

20 mondes. IAC Treasure Bowl Collections I-II is on view at Keramis – Center for Ceramics, La Louvière

May 21, 2022 – August 1, 2023

Keramis presents for the first time brought together the 20 bowls constituting the 2 editions of the Treasure Bowl Collection, initiated by the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).

The opportunity is also given to exhibit pieces from the collections of the Royal Museum of Mariemont and Keramis: on the one hand, it is the ceramics that served as inspiration for the artists of the second edition from the Treasure Bowl Collection; on the other hand, containers and other pieces by contemporary artists that offer a plastic dialogue with the AIC bowls.

There are indeed many bowls in these collections. The bowl is mainly one of the favorite exercises of potters and potter artists.

After the Second World War, influenced by the “Studio Pottery” movement from England, many of its ceramists develop an artistic approach to pottery. Their approach is very referential. They and they develop a crossbreeding between the traditional practice of stoneware in Europe and the repertoire of Sino-Japanese and Korean pottery.

The approach of these creators is deliberately anti-industrial insofar as it gives creation the main role in ceramic expression. The series of 10 bowls (known as Chawans) by Antoine de Vinck, made around 1970, is a good example of what Japanese inspiration can be.

Vincent Beague’s red bowl uses an old recipe developed in China from the reduction of copper oxide. Most of the enamels of Song China (1127-1279) are also obtained from the transformation of iron oxides. These are red (bowl of Francis Behets), black and many shades of browns, yellows, ambers, greens (known as “céladons”) and blues, as well as certain glazes with silver reflections such as the famous black Tenmoku and Jian (called “hare furs” clearly visible on a large cup of Jean Girel exposed). The same potters and potters artists have sometimes tried their hand at sculpture, as evidenced by these 2 three-dimensional works by Antoine de Vinck and Francis Behets. Works by Wayne Fischer and Gustavo Perez refer to the participation of these artists in the Treasure Bowl Collection.

About

The Treasure Bowl Collection is a very unique collection in contemporary ceramics. It is the culmination of a precious collaboration between international artists (10 for each edition) and a curator, all of whom are members of the International Academy of Ceramics. This project thus truly celebrates the philosophy of the AIC, based on the sharing of knowledge, fraternity and universalism.

Born during a reflection session of the Council of the International Academy of Ceramics in September 2015, the concept of a special edition of the AIC, organized and produced by its members, went public with its first edition in 2017-8.

Through the fundamental exercise of shaping a bowl, the guest artists, with their exceptional know-how, both traditional and contemporary, have worked to the expression of the native, of the self and of common values. For the ceramic artist, the bowl is an archetypal form. In its multiple variations, it is an iconic object symbolizing the universality of consciousness and human needs. Its expressive potential, voice of several cultures, testifies to its great artistic value.

Native Clay

The curation of the first edition, developed between 2016 and 2018 under the theme Native Clay, was entrusted to Misun Rheem. For the South Korean curator, the meaning of the word Native can no longer be assimilated to a simple geographical category. The term includes the specificities specific to each individual, produced by the environment, the history and the culture of his native land or of the specific place where that person has settled.

This collection was notably presented at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in New Taipei City (Taiwan) in September 2018 and at Ariana, the Swiss museum of ceramics and glass located in Geneva (Switzerland) from September to November 2019.

Guest artists: Abbas Akbari (Iran), Philippe Barde (Switzerland), Janet DeBoos (Australia), Wayne Higby (USA), Kyung Jo Roe (South Korea), Toshio Ohi Chozaemon XI (Japan), Gustavo Perez (Mexico), Ann Van Hoey (Belgium), Wen Yeh (Chinese Taipei), Fiona Lai Ching Wong (Hong Kong)

Appropriation

Led by Ludovic Recchia, curator director of Keramis, this second edition was launched when the economic crisis global health crisis descended on the world, covering it with a veil of concern. Therefore, the theme of appropriation, proposed at the end of 2019, appears to us in 2021 in a new light.

Ludovic Recchia’s vocation was to take this theme further in its historical, phenomenological and playful dimensions. The new project thus consisted in confronting 10 ceramists who are members of the IAC with a set of 18 ceramics borrowed from the collections of 2 Belgian museums: the Royal Museum of Mariemont and Keramis. By bringing together the legacy of Raoul Warocqué, whose collection (and in particular many ceramics of various eras and civilizations) is at the origin of the Royal Museum of Mariemont, as well as a selection of typically industrial earthenware, produced by the factory Boch Frères Keramis is a sample, admittedly incomplete, but nevertheless representative of the world history of the ceramic that is offered to our eyes.

Pieces selected from these institutions are not bowls, but many containers that evoke the function of pouring: ritual vases, ewers, jugs, bottles, coffee pots… By choosing these objects designed to pour a liquid in order to fill another, it is the reverse process that is operates to arrive at this bowl as a container to be reinvented.

The 10 bowls making up the Appropriation collection, as well as the models that inspired them are presented for the first time in Keramis, from May 21, 2022 to January 8, 2023. This exhibition offers the opportunity to also exhibit the previous edition of the Treasure Bowl Collection.

Guest artists: Yo Akiyama (Japan), Andile Dyalvane (South Africa), Ken Eastman (UK), Wayne Fischer (USA), Steven Heinemann (Canada), Guillermo Jorge Mané (Argentina), Nathalie Lautenbacher (Finland), Bai Ming (China), Monika Patuszynska (Poland), Jo Wonjae (Republic of Korea)

Contact
com@keramis.be

KERAMIS
Center for Ceramics of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation
1 Place des Fours-Bouteilles
7100 La Louvière
Belgium

Photo captions (for the first part of the article)

Dialogue entre le bol de Bai Ming et une verseuse de Chine datant de 618-907 des collections du Musée royal de Mariemont © Keramis
Antoine de Vinck, série de 10 bols, grès émaillé, fin des années 1960. Collection de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, en dépôt à Keramis © Keramis
Pichet, Belgium, La Louvière, manufacture Boch Frères Keramis, époque de la Chambre des peintres, 3e quart du 19e siècle, faïence. Collection Keramis © Keramis
Bouteille à saké, Japan, fours de Seto (Préfecture d_Aichi), 18e siècle après J.-C., grès, glaçure cendrée. Collection du Musée royal de Mariemont © Musée royal de Mariemont
Cafetière « Séduction », Belgium, La Louvière, manufacture Boch Frères Keramis. Designer Ernest D’Hossche (1912–1976), 1957, faïence. Collection Keramis © Keramis
Théière “Il Faro”, Germany, Selb, Rosenthal. Aldo Rossi, designer (1931–1997), 1984, porcelaine. Collection du Musée royal de Mariemont © Musée royal de Mariemont