He was born in 1984 in Brasov, Romania. She graduated from the University of Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca. It has been written about Răzvan Botiș that he observes reality and processes it with finesse and humor in works varied as a medium of expression, the most recent being made in ceramics. His works turn conventional perceptions and preconceptions on their head with a detached and lucid approach, speculating on the apparent simplicity of gestures and situations. I have noticed that there are numerous works that have as their subject man, the human body, its movements, attitudes, its expressiveness, with an understanding for man and his problems, without excluding a touch of humor.

– Maria Zintz:
When did you graduate from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca?

– Răzvan Botiș: I graduated from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca in 2007, in 2009 I finished my master’s degree and I finished my PhD in 2019. Why did you choose ceramics to express yourself creatively? Since the sixth grade I realized that I could express myself more easily in modeling. I’ve tried many mediums, but the whole volume thing I think appeals to me the most. Recently I decided to show only unglazed fired clay objects. Who were the teachers? In high school I had Nicolae Truțiu as my ceramics teacher, he was one of my most beloved teachers. At university I had many good teachers and I learned something from each of them. How have you received their guidance? The pottery studio in the university was the place where I had the maximum freedom, of course there was guidance. What did it consist of? The guidance consisted of a certain behavior, every teacher was a role model for me. Nothing was imposed on me, but there were expectations every time.

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What were your creative themes immediately after leaving school?

– After finishing my studies I tried to discover other mediums of expression, for example, I used to take photographs of objects on film. At one point, I photographed the footprints of the hats in the snow. That lasted about seven years and then I returned to ceramics. We tried many classic themes. I can tell you that the only direction I didn’t try was the abstract area. Otherwise I experimented with many conceptual niches.

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What were the general (artistic) concerns?

– The main concern is to make sense of chaos, or a shapeless lump of clay.

– Going through the exhibition activity, I noticed that they (the exhibitions) had in mind an idea, a problem (theme) of meditation on existential aspects of man. Name a few? To remember and develop those thoughts that led to the creation of the works.
– In the last solo exhibition of 2019 at Sabot Gallery, I aimed to highlight the condition of the ceramist in society, who in my opinion has a special role in a digitalized world because he keeps direct contact with the raw material. Nowadays all objects are prefabricated and packaged as finished products. In another personal exhibition I placed ceramic objects on paintings and I wanted to draw attention to the hierarchy of guilds. It is well known that painting is always in the foreground.

– Similarly, you have participated in (numerous) international exhibitions on themes that have in common man and his existential problems, feelings, related to his feelings and experiences. For example Persona in Marseille (France) in 2019, Extindere.ro in Moscow, Few were happy with their condition at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2016, November Remembers September at Balmoral Art Castle, Bad Ems Germany, and you can name a few more, because there were many. What kind of works did you send to these exhibitions? How were they made (materials and techniques)?
– I tried many mediums until 2016 when I started to work more in ceramics, but until 2016 I made some movies, photographed ephemeral objects or interventions in public space, worked with precious metals, gold, silver, made installations, made glass objects, or readymade objects from the Oser flea market in Cluj. All this time I seem to have run away from ceramics to savor all mediums until I settled on a unique material to work with. My father, who is also a jeweler, helped me with some precious metal objects. I also photographed my mom in different poses.

– What did the study trips mean? In what way did they have an impact on you? What about workshops?
– In 2006 I had an Erasmus scholarship in Vilnius, Lithuania. There I enjoyed working in a workshop like something out of a Harry Potter story. The university was housed in a former monastery. I enjoyed working there. I’ve been on three other artistic residencies, one in Germany and two in Austria. But all this time I moved from one medium of expression to another in search of the material of my choice, clay. I don’t like porcelain because it’s too precious.

– You also express yourself through other artistic means. What is their relationship with ceramic art?
– Currently I work almost exclusively in clay, there are times when I also paint, but rarely. In future I only want to use one kind of red clay, fired at 900 degrees C, unglazed. I think I’ve found my favorite material and I’m very excited about it.

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Name a few potters you consider important and from whom you have learned or assimilated influences.

– Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Jesse Wine, Woody De Othello, Eugenia Pop, Navid Nuur.

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What are your current concerns?

– At the moment I have a pottery studio on my balcony, I have a kiln and I work with clay every day.

– You will take over the subjects taught until now by Professor Nicolae Procopan. What are they?
– Currently I am an associate at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca where I teach drawing.

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Projects for the future?

– I made an exchange of works with Dan Perjovschi, that is, I challenged him to draw on clay and I am waiting for a package from him. I’m going to do a burning of his work and then I’m going to return some of his work.

Interview by Maria Zintz.

Articolul Interview with Răzvan Botiș apare prima dată în caolinArt.

He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts “Ion Andreescu” in Cluj Napoca in 1975. She lives and creates in Târgu Mureș, and is also the president of UAPR Târgu-Mureș. He has an exceptional exhibition activity. Mana Bucur was initially attracted to porcelain, and the factories in Cluj made it easy for her to create with this material, as did the factory in Curtea de Argeș, between 1975 (the year she graduated) and 1980, when she settled in Târgu Mureș. A retrospective look at his work reveals a concern for the expressive valences of the ceramic object, an interior object, interpreting the material in domed volumes, – with curved shapes (most often), glazed less often. The “Eyes for Eyes” or “Eyes to See” series of RAKU heat-treated kreaton, burned at over 1000 degrees C, also includes some “unfinished” or broken shapes. We are in front of a direct, generous communication, revealing a fiery temperament, and in some works we also admire the graphism of the graceful, gray-brown surfaces.

– Maria Zintz: I’m going to ask you a recurring question. When did you decide to create in ceramics?
– Mana Bucur: When I graduated from high school I met an engineer who was just working on a ceramic manufacturing project. I won’t hide the fact that at that time I was planning to study architecture and this gentleman was preparing me in this field. Accompanying him to this budding manufacture, I was amazed by the possibilities of the ceramic material. I’ve always loved sculpture, drawing, graphics. All this is amazing in ceramic objects.

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Which of your classmates made a career out of it?

– Too few Antik Alexander in media/installations

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What was the relationship with the teachers at the faculty?

– Excellent, – and here I respectfully and gratefully mention ANA LUPAȘ and MIRCEA SPĂTARU

– Let’s start with the porcelain and earthenware factories which have unfortunately disappeared. About Symposia. How have they helped you?
– For the students of the school in Cluj, the factories (three in number) were a real parallel school, everything we learned in theory we could apply in the factory, where we had all the necessary materials at our disposal, finalized with the burning. Then I was assigned to the ARPO porcelain factory in Curtea de Argeș, where, in spite of the fact that I was far from home, from Ardeal, I acquired a thorough knowledge of porcelain manufacturing technology, an influence that is still visible in my current work. I participated in several symposiums, one of them was at the very factory where I was working, together with famous ceramists: Marta Jakobovici, Radu Tănăsescu, Rodica Mazilescu. They are about exchanging ideas, sharing experiences and, last but not least, teamwork. In fact, I hardly accept to participate in symposiums and camps because I feel most comfortable in my studio, but the reason why I participate is the contact with fellow artists.

– Looking back on your work, I notice your concern for the expressive value of ceramic forms. Tell us something about this.
– As I mentioned, sculpture and graphics/drawing are my favorite specialties. There are no great differences between the works of small sculpture or rather small plastic works and the vast majority of ceramic works, they are deeply intertwined, almost merging. The difference is, of course, that the former are compact and the ceramic has a mysterious hollow inside, wrapped in a protective shell. I often joke about designing an object: you take a fistful of air and wrap it in a clay shell, the air in it determining the shape.

– The material comes with its suggestions, but the objects created, meant to be admired for their beauty, often contain allusions to life, some have references to duality, to dedublation, to closed-open, to the passage of time, to the form that reaches perfection. The technical qualities are complemented by grace and fragility, which can be as easily destroyed as the charm can be shattered by tearing them apart. Lately, you’ve been working with kreaton, which is a particularly plastic material that lends itself to being worked with your hands, although it’s very durable. What is the role of color in achieving the desired effects, the expressiveness of ceramic objects?
– I would like to remind you that I rarely use colored glazes, because most of the time I focus on the (sculptural) shape, I’m afraid of diminishing the sculptural look with colored surfaces, so I resort to graphic designs or grey/brown surfaces and prints.

– Let’s dwell on the idea of dedublation and the passage of time. One theme, repeated throughout your work, is that of duality (the number two), in many existential (and universal) forms and meanings.
– Our whole life is patronized by the number two, duality, good/bad, big/bad, high/low, high/low, pacifist/bellicose, up/down, beginning/end and the enumerations can go on and on, a very vast theme.

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I remember from your rich activity the series of Boxes with which you participated in camps and exhibitions. The idea of the box has fascinated you since childhood, raising the question: “what can it hide?” It is also used through the prism of duality: aggressive boxes or friendly boxes, some allow you to open them to penetrate their mystery, others, atypical, incite by the fact that they do not allow themselves to be understood. So the “envelope” becomes an object in itself, whether it is a bird-box, with slightly aggressive notes through the incisiveness of its corners, or a trap-box or a glued box. How and when did this idea come about?

– You mentioned it yourself. my childhood impression but also the fact that for a long time I was in charge of packaging design at the Electromures factory, which influenced my preoccupations in this respect. This is how the traps appeared, as I have already mentioned, the punch of air handcuffed in the clay shell which caused the shape to break free, and so the cracks, cracks and tears appear.

– A constant preoccupation has been to create unique, handmade objects, fired at over 1100 degrees and treated in the raku (reductive firing) technique, naked raku in particular. Moreover, the works of the last years are exclusively made by the naked raku procedure, also present in the two raku camps organized in Deda Bistra in 2012 and 2013, together with the Cerart group of potters founded in 2007, together with a group of Transylvanian potters. The raku and naked raku burnings were carried out several times a year, the last one on the occasion of the Witch’s Burning in the courtyard of the workshops. The works are created in Creaton masses, a sensitive modeling, applied on three/four-sided pyramidal forms, distinguished by simplicity, with vertical dominance, in an overall dull color scheme, in shades of dark brown to black. At the top of one facade each, in small cut-out friezes lightly marked with smoked red. Firing in the raku technique gives light, spectacular iridescence or velvety iridescence to light surfaces, emphasizing the fine textures created by repeated shaping and etching.
– Unfortunately the CERART group almost disbanded due to lack of members, but continues annually at the Witch Burning. The RAKU heat treatment (photo-5) is done in a team and it is a real show, there are always colleagues and spectators present.

–
About CERART: You initiated the creation of the artists’ group, a small group of ceramists and enamel artists from Târgu Mureș who were joined by some sculptors, in a word, fire artists.

– The birth of CERART coincides with the organization of the Ceramics Symposium of the Bolyai Foundation, which took place in the Medieval Fortress of Târgu Mureș (August 2007) and is largely due to it, because it was then that the core group was formed, working together in a common workshop, sharing their experiences, ideas and technological solutions. Then followed the Raku actions which also require teamwork, thus strengthening the founding group of artists, fellow “guild members”. Year after year the salon with the same name is organized in the UAPR galleries in Târgu Mureș, reaching its fifth edition, efforts being directed towards other cultural centers in the country. The group consists of the artists: Vidra Birtalan Eva, Mana Bucur, Orsolya Csiki Vidra, Csorvási Szabó, Laszló Attila, George Moldovan, Moldovan Maria, Mureșan Gheorghe, Olteanu David, Olteanu Mariana and Monika Pădureț. Guests: Crăciun Gheorghe, Crăciun Judit from Baia Mare and Agnes Forro from Cluj-Napoca.

– Other topics? What techniques have you worked on?
– During my “house arrest”, as I called the restrictive period of the pandemic, not being able to work in the studio, I took up graphic art, doing small works on handmade paper. I produced enough work for an exhibition in the small gallery in the citadel, which I run.

– When did you start working with raku and naked raku? What results have you achieved?
– I came into contact with this heat treatment during the first Bolyai ceramics symposium and since then I repeat this procedure on almost all my works, I find that they fit and finally enhance them aesthetically.

–
What are the most important exhibition events for your creation?

– In my opinion, the most successful exhibitions were at the GALATEEA gallery in Bucharest and at the LA CAVE gallery at the French Institute in Cluj within the International Ceramics Biennial under the same name, PROVOCARE RAKU.

– What are your concerns now? What are your favorite topics and techniques?
– I am looking for prints of different shapes and textures in combination with stones, clay is related to stone after all.

–
Projects for the future?

– There are many and I hope that the evolution of events will give me the freedom to put them into practice. Exhibitions in Bistrița, Budapest and Stockholm.

Interview by Maria Zintz.

Articolul Interview with Mana Bucur apare prima dată în caolinArt.

May 18-19 // Espresso Studio, Baba Novac 27
* age limit 7+
* we recommend parents to participate with their children
* cost of participation / person – 45 RON (payment on the spot)
* registration subject to availability – 12 places / workshop
* registration in advance on 0774 624 379

Creative or artistic workshops have gained a lot of popularity lately. We like to think that CAOLIN – the International Festival of Contemporary Ceramics – has made an important contribution to this phenomenon, and for several years now it has been offering art lovers an interactive section. The CAOLIN workshops are organized at the Espresso Studio art café, which also hosts artistic initiation courses throughout the year. The purpose of these workshops is not only recreational but also educational. Modeling or painting on ceramics are activities that significantly reduce the effects of everyday stress and overuse of technology, conditions that tend to alienate us from our own nature. By interacting with the material, the participant is introduced to a process of reconnection with the environment, multi-sensory re-education, inner balance and creative capacity.

The artistic creation workshops will be held by professional visual artists at the festival’s café – Espresso Studio (27 Baba Novac Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania) – and are scheduled as follows:

Saturday (May 18)

11:00-13:00 – Building a ceramic object
Participants will make ceramic objects using a special Japanese technique ~ Nerikomi)
Coordinator: Koncz-Münich Andras Koncz – visual artist

14:00-16:00 – Making clay tablets
The participants will make replicas of the famous Tlalteblițe from Tărtăria
Coordinator: Monica Bodea, specialist of the Museum of the History of Transylvania

17:00-19:00 – Reconstruction of a ceramic object
Participants will learn how to reconstruct a broken ceramic object using expert techniques
Coordinators: Master students at the Department of Restoration at the University of Art and Design in Cluj

Sunday (May 19)

10:00-12:00 – Building a ceramic object
You will learn various techniques of free-hand construction of ceramic objects
Coordinator: Denisa Curte – visual artist

13:00-15:00 – Painting on ceramics
Participants will paint ceramic objects with motifs specific to Cucuteni pottery
Coordinator: Cristina Gagiu – visual artist

16:00-18:00 – Zoomorphic figurines / ancient toys
Participants will model ceramic figurines as they made toys two thousand years ago
Coordinator: Laura Petresc – visual artist – Terra Dacica Aeterna Association

* registration is subject to availability on 0774 624 379

Articolul CAOLIN teaches you to model… paint or restore (your choice) apare prima dată în caolinArt.

On Saturday, May 18, at 18:00, the Victoria Cinema will screen the documentary “Ceramics: A Fragile History, Part III (The Ceramicist’s Art)”, made by BBC. The screening is one of the CAOLIN festival events.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of craftsmen decided to break the monopoly of the big pottery factories. This is the emergence of the artistic or signature pottery studio, a movement that celebrates technical craftsmanship and personal decorative taste in contrast to industrial mass production. Through the likes of William De Morgan, Bernard Leach and William Staite Murray, the studio potteries have made a significant contribution to the development of decorative arts and modern art in general, not just in Britain but throughout Europe.

Some of the figures who re-launched the art of ceramics in the UK after the second half of the 20th century are presented: Lucie Rie, Alison Britton, Grayson Perry or Edmund de Waal, who are now considered to be among the most important living ceramicists.

CAOLIN also presents in Cluj, between May 16 and 19, 2019, the Contemporary Ceramics Fair at the Tailors’ Tower, the international exhibition of conceptual-artistic ceramics at the Casino Center for Urban Culture, creative workshops and seminars at the artistic café Espresso Studio, as well as a focus on the Talavettes from Tărtăria in collaboration with the National Museum of Transylvanian History.

Since 2017 CAOLIN International Contemporary Ceramics Festival is organized under the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania.

Image copyright © BBC Learning

Articolul The fragile history of ceramics at Victoria Cinema – CAOLIN VI apare prima dată în caolinArt.

The Tartar’s tiles: a history unearthed

On Saturday, May 18, 2019, from 19:00, at the National Museum of the History of Transylvania will be inaugurated the exhibition “I Want To Belive” dedicated to the Tlaltetăria Tablets and other clay artifacts (amulets or pendants) with cultic role from the Neolithic era.
For Museum Night, access will be extended until 23:45.

The three Protagnonist tablets, discovered in 1961 in Tărtăria, Alba County, by archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa’s team, are considered by many experts as illustrative of the ‘Danube writing’ system. The pieces – of various shapes and sizes – have given rise to much debate about their dating and significance: for some, they are samples of the world’s oldest attested writing (pre-Sumerian), for others they are simply Neolithic cult objects marked with typical signs and symbols.

The exhibition, which will be open until 31 August, is part of the CAOLIN International Festival of Contemporary Ceramics, which will also feature a special workshop on the theme of the tiles.

CAOLIN is also organizing in Cluj between 16 and 19 May the Contemporary Ceramics Fair at the Tailors’ Tower, the International Exhibition of Conceptual-Artistic Ceramics at the Casino Urban Culture Centre, creative workshops and seminars at the Espresso Studio art café, a screening of a BBC documentary at the Victoria Cinema.

CAOLIN International Contemporary Ceramics Festival is organized under the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania.

Photo credit: https://www.descopera.org/tablitele-de-la-tartaria/

Articolul The Tartar’s Talavettes: a history unearthed – CAOLIN VI apare prima dată în caolinArt.

Starting Friday, May 17, 2019, at 10:00 am, at the Casino Urban Culture Center Cluj will open the international exhibition of conceptual-artistic ceramics – CAOLIN, within the festival of the same name, now in its sixth edition. The public in Cluj will have the opportunity to admire the work of internationally renowned artists such as Rafa Perez (Spain), Neil Hoffmann (Australia), Irina Razumovskaya (Russia), Debra Sloan (Canada), Chang Hyun Bang (South Korea) and Yoichiro Kamei (Japan).

On May 18, Museum Night, the Casino will be open until 00:00.

Originating from Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas, the works on display are based on the idea of exercise and experimentation. Dealing with different subjects, the ceramist ingeniously explores multiple working techniques and media of expression in the creation of representative objects. “Clay – through its malleability and the transformations it undergoes, through its fragility and resilience, is both a fundamental means of expression and a diary of lived experience and culture. Its mysterious and sensual nature, as well as the fact that it is literally grounded, suggests a metaphor for human life,” explains ceramist Avital Sheffer.

The works come from the collections of the Cluj International Ceramics Biennial and the Ceramics Now organization. The event aims to increase the visibility of contemporary ceramics in Romania and facilitate contact between artists and the public. In addition to the international exhibition at the Casino, CAOLIN also organizes the Contemporary Ceramics Fair at the Tailors’ Tower, creative workshops and seminars at the Espresso Studio art café, a documentary screening at the Victoria Cinema and the exhibition of the Tatar Pottery from the “I Want to Believe” exhibition at the National Museum of Transylvanian History.

Since 2017 CAOLIN International Contemporary Ceramics Festival is organized under the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania.

Articolul CAOLIN VI – International exhibition of conceptual-artistic ceramics apare prima dată în caolinArt.

Between May 16 and 19, 2019, the Tailors’ Tower in Cluj will host the Contemporary Ceramics Fair within the 6th edition of the CAOLIN festival, the most complex and liveliest event of its kind in the country.

The official opening of the Fair will take place on May 16 at 18:00 at the Tailors’ Tower. At the opening, the winners of the Earthshining competition (ceramic lighting fixture design competition) will also be announced. Public access is free.

The fair is organized for the second time in the historic Transylvanian monument and presents the creations of about 25 contemporary ceramic artists carefully selected following an evaluation process of the applications submitted online. As in previous editions, highly appreciated artists in the field of signature ceramics and design, such as Doina Stici, Diana Muraru (LUT), Ioan Sumedre (sumiDesign), Nicolae Câmpan, Ana-Maria and Mihai Ariciu (Atelierul cu povești) and others, will exhibit at the fair. a.

On May 18, Museum Night, the fair will be open until 00:00.

In addition to the Tower Fair, other festival events take place at the National Museum of Transylvanian History (the exhibition “I Want To Believe”, dedicated to the Tlalte Tiles), at the Casino Urban Culture Center Cluj (international exhibition of conceptual-artistic ceramics), at the Victoria Cinema (screening of a BBC documentary, a retrospective on ceramics) and at the cultural café Espresso Studio, the space permanently attached to the CAOLIN Festival (workshops and seminars).

Since 2017 the International Contemporary Ceramics Festival – CAOLIN is organized under the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania.

Articolul International Contemporary Ceramics Fair – CAOLIN VI apare prima dată în caolinArt.

CAOLIN recharged
In 2014, at a time when the public scene in Cluj had a reduced cultural offer, a few passionate young people bet on a niche sector – ceramic art – to launch an independent festival with minimal, if not non-existent, resources: the CAOLIN International Festival of Contemporary Ceramics. Their intuition and effort paid off. In a short time, the festival succeeded in bringing ceramics back to the attention of the Cluj public, popularizing not only contemporary creations, but also traditions or ceramic techniques current in Romania and the rest of the world.

CAOLIN has become a synonym for the celebration of national and international ceramics in Cluj, gaining an enthusiastic multigenerational audience. The success of the CAOLIN festival is in tune with the worldwide revival of ceramics, as exemplified by Ceramic Art London, a fair that in March this year saw a record number of participants, and the trend of ceramic workshops promoted as a kind of “new Pilates” for the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of contact with clay.

Kaolin milestones
2017 was a crucial year for the festival, first by obtaining the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania, then by establishing a fruitful partnership with the International Ceramics Biennial in Cluj for the section dedicated to the exhibition of conceptual-artistic ceramics. Also in 2017, the cultural café Espresso Studio, the “operational center” of the CAOLIN creative workshops over the year, was opened.

In December 2018, CAOLIN organized a surprise pre-Christmas edition in the Tailors’ Tower, a monument of great historical significance, which will also host the Pottery Fair.

Ceramics = civilization old and new
The CAOLIN program in 2019 promises to be very varied and articulated on several levels: Fair of contemporary ceramics and author’s design at the Tailors’ Tower; International exhibition of contemporary artistic ceramics at the Casino Centre of Urban Culture Cluj; exhibition of the mysterious Tlalte Talavettes from Tărtăria within the exhibition “I Want to Believe” at the National Museum of Transylvanian History (plus the CAOLIN workshop dedicated to them); workshops of artistic creation or restoration at the cultural café Espresso Studio (Saturday and Sunday, see program); screening of the documentary, made by BBC – Ceramica: A Fragile History (Part III) at the Victoria Cinema (Saturday, May 18, 18:00).

The CAOLIN Festival coincides this year with the Night of Museums, so on Saturday, May 18, the CAOLIN program in the Tower and Casino will be extended until 00:00, and the one at the Museum of the History of Transylvania until 23:45.

CAOLIN International Contemporary Ceramics Festival is organized under the High Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania.

Articolul International Festival of Contemporary Ceramics – CAOLIN VI apare prima dată în caolinArt.