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.