Ceramics in the Noughties
The Attese Edizioni collection in the Ceramics Museum of Savona
Partial view of the permanent exhibition “La ceramica degli Anni Zero in Liguria. Collezione Attese Edizioni”, Museo della Ceramica di Savona. Courtesy Fondazione De Mari, Savona
The incredibly bright Open Space, on the last floor of the Ceramics Museum of Savona, hosts a wide selection of the collection created by Attese Edizioni from 2001 to the present.
The collection, acquired from the De Mari Foundation during the recent setup of the new museum that narrates the history of local ceramics, from the 15th to the 21st century, displays prototypes and works created within the context of the interdisciplinary design and prototyping Laboratory of the Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art, promoted by Attese Edizioni in a partnership with the same Foundation, along with the municipalities of Albisola Superiore, Albissola Marina, Savona and Vado Ligure and, over the years, with various cultural institutions and museums in Italy, Switzerland and throughout Europe, such as the Ariana Museum in Geneva, the Mudac in Lausanne, the Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid and the Triennale in Milan.
That laboratory gave rise, first and foremost, to various editions of the Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art, on the successful wake of the numerous Biennials of Contemporary Art that, since the Nineties, have proliferated in many European cities, Asia, the Americas and Africa.
Such a phenomenon is the end result of globalisation and connectivity, factors that have contributed to the re-emergence of the local dimension – a “local” quite different from what such an expression once signified, i.e. the provincial town isolated and relatively closed in terms of its own culture and economy.
The Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art represents a community that has developed cultural activities, as well as forms of organisation and economic models from which a new cosmopolitan localism has emerged, proposing new production and consumption systems while expressing a new and ever more urgent design demand for ceramics that are continuing to diminish and, in point of fact, are on the verge of disappearing.
Drawing on the richness and fragility of the area, Attese Edizioni set the objective of constructing a present and a future for artistic craftsmanship, recouping and actualizing the centuries-old production and cultural-based interactions that on an interregional and transnational scale have historically distinguished the main players in the ceramic area in the province of Savona.
Attese Edizioni aims at investing in an edifying network that, in the area, intends on incorporating immaterial assets, such as design and contemporary art, mixing them with the traditional skill-based procedures of the artisan workshops and the most advanced high-tech techniques, typical of industrial production processes.
Over the last fifteen years, this laboratory has involved and concentrated into a single field of action internationally renowned artists and designers of various generations, ceramists, decorators, potters, model sculptors, craftsman of various production sectors, IT model makers and prototyping companies, curators as well as historians of art and design.
The end results of the efforts of the Laboratory of Attese Edizioni – the prototypes and works of the collection – are on display at the Ceramics Museum of Savona after having been promoted by the various editions of the Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art and by just as important exhibitions in Antwerp, Beijing, Biella, Bilbao, Bologna, Bordeaux, Cape Town, Camogli, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Lausanne, Madrid, Milan, Nantou, New York, Porto Alegre, Rome, San Francisco, São Paulo, Santiago de Cile, Sèvres, Tokyo and Turin.
Ceramics in the Noughties.
The Attese Edizioni collection in the Ceramics Museum of Savona
Getulio Alviani, El Anatsui, Simone Berti, Jurgen Bey, Bili Bidjocka, Andries Botha, Claudio Bracco, Andrea Branzi, Linde Burkhardt, Vincenzo Cabiati, Fernando e Humberto Campana, Rossana Campo, Mauro Castellano e Leonardo Gensini, Giuseppe Chiari, Nicola Costantino, Lorenzo Damiani, Amie Dicke, Uros Djuric, Florence Doléac, Yona Friedman, Rainer Ganahl, Alberto Garutti, Alexis Georgacopoulos, Liam Gillick, Marti Guixé, Pekka Harni, Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Henri Eric Hernandez, Kristian Hornsleth, Christina Iacopino, Joris Laarman, Ugo La Pietra, Marta Laudani e Marco Romanelli, Marco Lavagetto, Gabriel Lester, Corrado Levi, Adeline Lunati, Morgan Maggiolini, Annamaria Martena, Hugo Meert, Alessandro Mendini, Giovanni Occhipinti, Adrian Paci, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Franco Raggi, David Robbins, Adrien Rovero, Denis Santachiara, Shimabuku, Studio Demakersvan, Iké Udé, Paolo Ulian, Guido Venturini, Vedovamazzei, Alberto Viola, Luca Vitone
