Artist’s Ceramics II: First Albissola Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art
27 June – 2 September, 2002
Musée Ariana
10 avenue de la Paix
1202 Geneva
T: +41(0)22 418 54 50
musee.ariana@ville-ge.ch
Bertozzi & Dal Monte Casoni, “Avanzi”, 2001
Preview: 26 June 2002, from 6 p.m.
First Albissola Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art
Musée Ariana, Geneva, 27 June – 2 September 2002
Preview on Wednesday 26 June 2002 from 6 p.m.
The Musée Ariana, in collaboration with the Fonds cantonal de décoration et d’art visuel, is displaying this summer a group of twenty-five ceramic projects prepared in Albissola, a small Italian town on the Ligurian coast, by artists who are not ceramists but well-known on the contemporary international scene.
Although the ceramic tradition of Albissola dates back to the 15th century with the production of tiles and then continued over the following centuries with the creation of luxury faience, this craft industry was rudely shaken in the early 20th century by the arrival of artists who were entirely bent upon effacing the boundaries between the fine and decorative arts, the major and minor arts.
It was in order to revive this atmosphere of artistic and intellectual rivalry that had developed between ceramics and the avant-garde artists of the time that Tiziana Casapietra and Roberto Costantino of the Attese onlus association devised the ambitious project of a Biennial for ceramic artists. The outcome of this first event is a reflection of today’s creative scene: heterogeneous, provocative, audacious and surprising. All the invited artists agreed to accept the challenge, thus proving the topicality of this ancestral medium. Their involvement in realizing their ceramic projects was impressive. Most of the artists went to Albissola, where they met the craftsmen and were faced by the demands and possibilities of the material, an encounter that was vital for the fulfilment of the initial project.
Ana Laura Alaez – El Anatsui – Bertozzi & Dal Monte Casoni – Bili Bidjocka – Loris Cecchini – Nina Childress – Nicola Costantino – Uros Djuric – Sohela Farokhi – Daniel Firman – Rainer Ganahl – Kristian Hornsleth – Elke Krystufek – Lou-Laurin Lam – Soo-Kyung Lee – Gianni Motti – Luca Pancrazzi – Perino e Vele – Alessandro Pessoli – Jane Simpson – Momoyo Torimitsu – Costa Vece – Luca Vitone – Sislej Xhafa – Yuan Shun
Open Wednesday to Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Musée Ariana 10, avenue de la Paix 1202 Geneva
Telephone: +41(0)22 418 54 50 Fax: +41(0)22 418 54 51 E-mail musee.ariana@ville-ge.ch
Press Service : Bertrand Tappolet
Telephone : +41(0)22 418 26 54 Fax : +41(0)22 418 26 01 E-mail bertrand.tappolet@mah.ville-ge.ch
Entry fee : Fr. 4.50 | pensioners/students/groups from 15 people : Fr. 2.50 I Free of charge up to 18 years.
Group visits by reservation – enquiries : Access information, Tel : (+41 22) 418 25 00
Catalogue: Biennale di Ceramica nell’Arte contemporanea 1° edizione. Il volto felice della globalizzazione / The happy face of globalization / La face souriante de la globalisation
Contributions of Roberto Costantino, Guy Debord, Olu Oguibe, et al.
Text in Italian, English, French. Edited by Attese onlus, Milano, 2001. 271 pages, colors & black/white illustrations. Size : 23.5 x 16.5 cm. Prize : SFR 40
For more info on the Biennale of Ceramic in Contemporary Art see web-site www.attese.it or email at info@attese.it or attese@iol.it
