Yona Friedman

Yona Friedman, Cities

Yona Friedman, Cities  1

Yona Friedman, Cities  2

Yona Friedman, Cities  3

Yona Friedman, Cities  4

Yona Friedman, Cities  5

The aesthetic of inexactitude

I am not really a professional artist, just an architect who tries to imagine new approaches to architecture, looking at it as the random accumulation of irregularly shaped individual living and working spaces, which should actually be conceived by the individual inhabitants themselves. It is quite difficult to visualize this kind of randomly unplanned architecture other than through models.
Architectural models can eventually become works of art and I generally make use of all kinds of materials not originally intended for modelmaking: corks, boxes, mosaic, paper rolls, lampshade-rings, etc. It is their assembly that makes the models.
I was naturally delighted when I was asked to try using ceramics. My models of cities in ceramics are very far from realistic representations (in the sense of mainstream architecture). Clay as a material, its versatility, its heaviness suggested new forms to me; forms that were very different to the drawings of the project they were due to represent. The accent here lies more on the ideas.
The compositions in space I happened to shape in clay led me to improved shapes in architecture, breaking away from regular forms and industrial precision towards an aesthetic of inexactitude, of the irregular. The difference is similar to that of vernacular buildings in clay, in dry mud compared with industrialized “prefabs.”
I do not know whether the objects I made in clay are beautiful or not (how does one define “beauty?”). What I hope is that they might encourage a few people (even some architects) to continue this line of thought, discovering new potentials for the man-made environment.

Yona Friedman

Rainer Ganahl

Rainer Ganahl (in collaboration with Ghazi Al Delaimi), Iraq dialogue  1

Rainer Ganahl (in collaboration with Ghazi Al Delaimi), Iraq dialogue  2

Rainer Ganahl (in collaboration with Ghazi Al Delaimi), Iraq dialogue  3

Rainer Ganahl (in collaboration with Ghazi Al Delaimi), Iraq dialogue  4

Rainer Ganahl (in collaboration with Ghazi Al Delaimi), Iraq dialogue  5

Iraq dialogues

My concept for this body of work consists of the exchange of ideas and opinions regarding the Iraq crisis with a group of Iraqi expatriates and/or refugees living in Northern Europe. Conceptually, this project is similar to an ongoing dialog I try to maintain with people from Afghanistan/Pakistan and it also resembles other projects in which I try to create a dialog platform to express other people’s thinking and feelings and about politics and  personal and collective history (see: ganahl.info).
The way the idea for my Iraq dialogs works is as follows: initially I’m creating my own personal “war archive” with dominant U.S. TV news material concerning the current Iraq crisis. Secondly, I’m isolating logos, titles, subtitles and other interface elements from this footage. Thirdly, I am looking for Iraqi people who are willing to participate in this work and asking them to respond to this material: “Next Target? Heavy Bombing, Operation Freedom Iraq, etc.” Fourthly: the results are painted on ceramic tiles after some preparatory work is done. I do some of the graphic elements, while others are painted with the help of assistants trained in graphic illustration. The Arabic calligraphy is prepared by computer and/or by my dialog partners. Firing the tiles completes the process.
So far, I have been working with various Iraqi-born emigrants living in Vienna, Utrecht, Bremen and Düsseldorf. Now, in the aftermath of the war, I am also trying to go to Baghdad and complete this series there. Each person has his/her own history, opinion and position on political issues and the media. Encouraging my partners to express themselves with regards to their relationship to powerful media interfaces is the main part of my conceptual goal.
In many cases, these logos and textual media landscapes characterizing U.S. news broadcasts are very confrontational, aggressive and opinionated if not downright cynical, arrogant and scary: “Next Target, Showdown Iraq, Would us Use Nukes”? and so on. These elements are selling, branding, justifying and authenticating the news and, in this case, the war. I am thus interested in de- and re-contextualizing them, using them to help people directly affected by this confrontation to write back.
For the set of Iraq Dialogs made in the ceramics studios in Albisola, I have collaborated with Ghazi Al Delaimi who I found through the German-Arabic Society. Al Delaimi was born in Baghdad but has been living in Düsseldorf for many years. He has been working as a calligrapher and graphic designer and as an artist. Over several weeks we exchanged images I placed on my web site for him to which he would respond with his own words and his own calligraphic layout.
All the sentences written in Arabic are entirely conceived by Ghazi Al Delaimi and do not reflect any input by me. In no way did I try to influence or censor his responses. These are entirely Ghazi’s views and statements. While I personally share with Ghazi a firm opposition to war with Iraq and an unequivocal rejection of any neo-colonial attitudes and USA unilateralism, Ghazi Al Delaimi's words are his own and not mine. As an Austrian and as an American citizen, I also oppose any indiscriminate Anti-Americanism. I try to make a distinction between this current semi-legitimate administration, with its troublesome domestic policies and its foreign policies violating international laws and the USA as a whole.

Rainer Ganahl



Until very recently I had worked with all sorts of materials in my paintings and objects, but not ceramics. I had, however, always wished to create a piece of art in ceramics and to follow its creation from sketch to final product.
The collective project with Rainer Ganahl and the Studio Ernan Design in Albisola offered an excellent opportunity for me to realise one of my long-held dreams and to enjoy and greatly appreciate a new and fascinating experience.

Ghazi Al Delaimi

Jeppe Hein

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

Jeppe Hein, Please do not touch the art works

How Broken Ceramic Keep Things Together

The evening before getting married the future couple invites their friends, neighbours and family to celebrate their “Polterabend”. The guests traditionally bring a cup, some plates, a vase… even a whole washbasin or bathtub, all kinds of different china and ceramics.  Before entering the house the guests smash their “little gifts” with plenty of noise. Through that noise the visitors are trying to protect the future couple from evil spirits. As more guests arrive and more china is broken, the couple works together to clear away the broken shards – as they will do whenever future problems arise.

Silke Heneka e Jeppe Hein



There are three separate parts to my project :
Making the ceramic plates.
Installing the work.
Stacking the plates.

1: The first step is to make about 70 large plates. They should all be more or less the same size and look the same with a diameter of around 40 cm. I will “paint” them and work with them to make them visually interesting, using different colours, grits and so on.
2: Installing the work: On a white wall I will hang a single plate at a height of about 150 cm. A line or tape on the floor will indicate that viewers are not allowed to get closer to the ceramic plate. Should someone get closer, going beyond the confine of what is allowed (the line on the floor), the plate will fall to the floor and break. The plate will be left lying broken on the floor until the museum closes for the day.
3: Stacking the plates: At this point the broken pieces will be picked up and glued together again. The fixed ceramic plate will be stacked in another room. The next day a new plate will be hung on the wall.

Jeppe Hein

Henry Eric Hernández

Henry Eric Hernández, Los que cavan su pirámide

Henry Eric Hernández, Los que cavan su pirámide

Urn (…) I was researching in the archives of the Christopher Columbus Cemetery and chose various deceased individuals with a common story — they were to be have been exhumed between 1999 and 2000. I went to meet the families of the deceased and with their consent made urns in ceramics, marble and bronze to contain their remains.

Henry Eric Hernández

Kristian Hornsleth

Kristian Hornsleth, Benessere senza cultura – Horn$leth, Albisola salvaci

Kristian Hornsleth, Benessere senza cultura – Horn$leth, Albisola salvaci. Piazza Matteotti, Albisola Superiore

Björn Kjelltoft

Björn Kjelltoft, Untitled

Björn Kjelltoft, Untitled

Björn Kjelltoft, Untitled

Decorative alarms

Many of my works talk about taste, consumption, branding, mass production and values. In the Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art I present ceramic casts of alarm tags found on clothes in shops. I have suggested these tags as decorative elements rather than functional alarms. This gesture subtracts function and adds beauty, or at least the idea of beauty. The tag functions as a symbol or amulet in the commercial language of everyday shopping rituals. By creating non-functioning alarms I am attempting to make an absurd appropriation of this commercial language and somehow reshape or comment on its meaning.

Björn Kjelltoft

Surasi Kusolwong

Surasi Kusolwong, Bellissimo Garden (Beautiful Garden)

Surasi Kusolwong, Bellissimo Garden (Beautiful Garden)

Surasi Kusolwong, Bellissimo Garden (Beautiful Garden)

Bellissimo Garden

(My) experiences have taken different shapes and forms while working with ceramics.
I would like to share the attitudes and experiences that made my ceramic project possible.

Journey
I landed at Milano Malpensa Airport in the late morning, and took the airport bus to the train station where somebody was supposed to pick me up and accompany me to Albisola. It was incredible how many people were at the station even though it was a Sunday. I waited for an hour and then tried to find a telephone booth. Oh! They only take telephone cards, just plastic money, no coins. Luckily, I found a shop to buy the plastic phone card. I called Tiziana who said “I’ll send somebody again. The woman picking you up will be holding the new issue of Flash Art in her hand!” That’s really nice and original, I thought!
Later on, I met the woman and we drove a car to Albisola. It took around 3 hours… Hmmm… very beautiful landscape, quiet hills all around…

Albisola greetings
Tiziana rushed up to greet me on the streets of Albisola. “Surasi! Come stai?” “Mille grazie. Bene. Super Bene!”, I replied. She had just come from the office, I guessed. We went out for lunch at the restaurant near the beach. The sky was bright and clear. Roberto and Alberto joined us later with their welcoming smile… Immediately after lunch Roberto took us to visit Asger Jorn’s house in the Albisola hills. The place is quite amazing, full of energy… very beautiful. Then we visited the Artists’ Walk at Albissola Marina with the work of Lucio Fontana, Wifredo Lam, and others…
That evening was so wonderful for me (I felt quite dizzy after crossing the world from Bangkok).

Visit
The next morning through to the afternoon, I visited a number ceramic studios in different places. They were all dynamic studios with fascinating atmospheres connecting with the traditional ways of making ceramics…
I saw my small ceramic animals for the first time since they had been sent here as models to be enlarged by the Fine Art high school students of Savona.
The students had completed the process making the moulds of the tiger, rabbit, penguin, duck, giraffe and so on that I bought from the Sunday market in Bangkok. All these enlarged animals were sent to ceramists in different studios for the next steps of involving the painting of their surfaces forms, and then firing.
My programme included visiting the students and teachers at the art school. When I arrived, the students were bright and active. Initially, they were a little bit shy about asking what I’m doing, but after half an hour of my talk, I received more and more questions. The teachers were very kind and very proud to show me their students’ animal drawings. I like the drawings a lot and hope I can show them with the ceramic animals. It was a really lovely afternoon. (And I promised to invite all of them to have ice-cream together next time!)

Continuation
1) One simple table for all the different animals to be placed on. Each animal will have plastic flowers and tropical fruits growing on their backs (perhaps, in the same way that we have plastic money in our wallets).
2) One natural national sensibility is delivered to another.


Thanks to all the Albisolan ceramists and teachers who have been very kind and taken the best care of my project, to the students of the Fine Art School for their wonderful moulding work, to the anonymous Thai ceramists who give me inspiration and sensitivity and to the curators and friends who asked me to explore the possibility of bringing together two different realities through the fascinating medium of ceramics.

Thanks again for everything.

Surasi Kusolwong

Marco Lavagetto

Marco Lavagetto, The Eye of the Biennale

Marco Lavagetto proposes a video clip that condens almost a year and haf of filming with a V8 camera. His work highlights the activities of atists who worked in the Albisola ceramic laboratories: artists form different cultures who got involved with the same deep-rooted language of ceramics.

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