I participate in the 2nd Taiwan Chawan Festival from Sept 8 - Sept 17 with 5 chawans.
Look on their website to all the beautiful chawans, teabowls: https://en.twcca.com.tw/products/all/2.htm
Green-Black Slipware Chawan.
Yellow-Blue Slipware Chawan.
Pink-Blue Slipware Chawan.
Kamakura-Red Sakura 2 Chawan.
Kamakura-Red Sakura 1 Chawan.
This September, I participated in the International Academy of Ceramics (AIC/IAC) 50th congress, "Melting Pot", in the field of ceramics today and will discus questions of identity and interaction from Sept. 12-20, 2022, held in the International Conference Center (CICG), Geneva, Switzerland. We were altogether around 300 people from 77 countries. The International Academy of Ceramics is the principal organization representing the interests of ceramists worldwide.
The 5-day program will consist of professional and academic lectures given by specialists in various fields related to the theme, debate sessions, the opening night of the international exhibition at the Ariana Museum, inaugurations and visits to exhibitions.
Fountain in the Lac Leman in Geneva.
The “L’ecole des Arts Decoratifs” the ceramic direction I attended for 2 years in Geneva. It’s now called ”Haute Ecole des Arts Decoratifs”.
The “Mont Blanc” from across the lake.
New members announcement on a tv screen.
The first two days were filled with keynote and member lectures.
On the first night, there were three exhibition openings at the Ariana Museum , the only museum in Switzerland devoted entirely to kilncraft and so filled with worldwide ceramics and glass. Along with some excellent conference presentations, we enjoyed festivities in this museum.
On the second night we visited galleries and museum in the heart of Geneva’s Old Town.
Inside the Ariana Museum.
Opening of the exhibition in the Ariana Museum.
At the Ariana Museum.
A beautiful plate at the Arian Museum.
I received my acceptance diploma: a welcome as a new member in the IAC/AIC.
On Wednesday the General Assembly was held with a visit to the Palais des Nations (United Nations) in the afternoon with two exhibition openings. In the evening it was UNESCO night.
Visiting the United Nations.
Plate exposition at the United Nations.
The United Nations: 179 flags/nations.
Installation exposition at the United Nations.
General Assembly.
Broken Leg Chair in front of United Nations symbolizing both fragility and strength, imbalance and stability, violence and dignity.
The next day we had a bus excursion. It included the opening reception of the 1st half of the exhibition of, "Melting Pot: National SwissCeramics", at the Museum of Art and History of Neuchâtel (MahN). Then, a guided tour at La Ferme des Tilleuls, Renens: “Materia”. Finally, the exhibition opening at the Château de Nyon: “Melting Pot: Swissceramics National Exhibition” (2nd part) with dinner at the chateau. The view from the chateau was spectacular.
Inside hall staircase MahN Museum.
Opening exposition at Mahn Museum.
One of the many art works.
Aline Favre: She was my teacher at the L’ecole des Arts Decoratifs and many more art works.
Artist Danielle.
La Ferme des Tilleuls: artist Danielle.
One of many artworks: Art work from Claudia at the chateau.
View from the Chateau de Nyon.
Many teapots from one artist.
We had round table discussions on Friday morning and the afternoon was free to visit galleries.
The closing dinner of the 50th IAC Congress at the Institut Florimont on Friday evening was a huge success: well attended with good food and dancing.
All day Saturday many galleries throughout the city, especially Carouge, exhibited a variety of ceramics with receptions with exhibition openings that various groups visited on a walking tours. Overall, there were more than 30 exhibitions in national and private museums, art galleries and historical or contemporary institutions.
One art work I liked at one of the expositions at Carouge.
One art work I liked at one of the expositions at Carouge.
One art work I liked at one of the expositions at Carouge.
“Bling Bling” exposition at Carouge: Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos by Stephanie.
“Bling, Bling” Exposition
“Bling Bling” exposition at Carouge: Shamai
“Bling Bling” exposition at Carouge
On Monday, Sept. 19, there was an all day excursion provided by SwissCeramics. It included 25 people, who took advantage of the opportunity to visit outside Geneva. We visited museums and galleries in Yverdons-les Bains and Prangins, plus enjoyed a delightful lunch and dinner together.
I had a great time and was glad to be back in Switzerland after 45 years. It was wonderful to see many ceramist friends from around the world.
On our way to Neuchatel.
Chateau d’Echandens, the village in lived in.
On our way.
The 7 residence people: Sharon, Kara, Sherry, Swanica, Nadine, Karla and Melissa.
The Mediterranean coast toward Cannes.
We’re 3 days in the program and made our acquaintances and introductions and presentations. It is great to meet so many new people again from Australia, Mexico, USA, France, South Africa, and I from the Netherlands.
A delicious “Nicoise” salad.
Beautiful Mediterranean Sea.
My villa mates Melissa from South Africa and Sherry from the USA.
Mediterranean Coast.
We spend quite some time with talking about our goals and how to get there.
We also made some beautiful walks. The rain stopped and the sun came out, although the wind was blowing with refreshing air.
An old church in the neighborhood, but in complete disrepair.
Some red “ocre” colored mountains.
The old church with Mimosa tree.
Today, Kara taught us some “Wire” drawing. First, you had to draw the person across from you with one continuous line without looking on the paper and only to the person. And then after that you made that drawing out of wire. It was not easy, but the results were not bad and we had much fun doing it.
Of course, we also started our work with clay and for everybody that is their own wonderful research and discovery.
Made from copper wire.
I drew Kara’s picture with one line and then used the wire. Not easy.
Kara, who taught the course, drew me and made the wire picture.
The sunset of tonight.
I am one of the 20 winners of the 2020 ICAN (International Ceramics Artists Network) Juried Exhibition at the field for “Short and Stout” teapots. This year’s juror, Katie Sleyman selected 20 Ceramic works to be included in this year’s exhibition, which will be on display at the ICAN booth (#400 in the convention center) from March 25 - 27 2020, at the NCECA Conference in Richmond, Virginia, USA.
All the Winners.
Horsehair Raku Mishima Teapot Set.
First , we did go to the National Palace Museum in Taipei. A huge museum with of course lots of ceramic art.
Yixing ware with painted enamels, 15th year of the Daoguang reign 1835.
Red dragons in “Wucai” polychrome enamels, Qing Dynasty 1662 - 1722.
Jade ewer with lotus-style handle, Ming Dynasty, 1463 - 1644 C.E.
We had a delicious lunch after which we went to the Beitou Hot Spring Museum. A beautiful Japanese bath house. It was built in 1911 during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. After the handover to China it had several uses. In 1998 it was totally renovated into a historical site.
Then we went to the Dalongdong Baoan Temple, a Taiwanese Folk religion temple. The site was built from 1805-1830 and is now a Cultural Heritage site.There are so many decorations!! Just incredible!
Decoration on top of the temple gate.
Holy watch dog.
Many holy stories.
Scene of holy story.
The inner temple.
The dragon signifies strength, power and good luck.
The holy tiger, the king of all beasts and represents powerful energy.
Today September 30, 2018 is the opening of the 48th International Academy of Ceramics in Taiwan.
I flew there yesterday straight from Amsterdam.
I met already some friends.
The conference was opened by the Mayor of Taipei City.
Then the Director of the National Museum of History Liao, Hsin-tien gave the keynote speech about that art can express better what is difficult to say in words: West wind blowing to the East: The “Re-Orientalization”.
Conference logo
Introduction by Mayor of Taipei City
Discussion about the topic of the conference with the president of the IAC Jaques Kaufmann.
Explanation of the conference.
In the afternoon we went to the city Yingge where they have the Yingge Ceramics Museum. It showed the wonderful works of the member of the AIC. The museum’s permanent collection showed the history of ceramics in Taiwan. Then we walked through the ceramics park with many ceramic works to the building where they offer the residency program and saw the great studios and spaces where you can do your research work for about 2 months.
Member art work by Shamai Gibsh.
Artwork in Yingge Ceramic Park.
Explanation of the Member exhibition of the IAC at the Yingge Ceramics Art Museum and Center.
Opening ceremonie in the evening of the IAC Conference.
In the evening we had a great party and the IAC new member ceremony.
Day 2 started with 2 special lectures.
The 1st one was a discussion with 2 famous artist Yasuo Hayashi and Yang Yuan-tai during which there was a slide show from their works.
The 2nd lecture was by Nara Yoshitomo about his artworks: painting and clay.
Talk with Yasuo Hayashi and Nara Yoshitomo.
The exposition at the National Taiwan University of Arts.
Beautiful forest artwork.
A beautiful porcelain vessel.
Another beautiful artwork.
In the afternoon we did go to the National Taiwan University of Arts where they had a created a special exhibition from Taiwanese artist for our conference. It was beautiful.
After that we drove to the Farglory Museum with the Golden Teapot Exhibition. So many teapots: so interesting and beautiful.
Evelyne Schoenmann’s teapot! Congratulations!
Love this teapot.
Another nice teapot.
Still quite some people came to the exposition. We had some good conversations and last exchanges.
It was wonderful to get to know so many artists from all over the world!!!
With Petra Lindenbauer from Austria.
One of my bottles.
The organizers of the exposition and conference: Lou Smedts, Gerda Genijn, Els Janssens, Chris Prinsen and Alvin Tan Teck Heng.
In the evening we had a farewell dinner. We had a wonderful time with some good food, music and songs!!
Song by Jan, Marta, Alvin and Miguel for Lou.
Marta Mugardes sings a song from Any Weinhaus.
Applauding for the performance.
All watching Jan play.
Jan singing and playing on the guitar.
I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast "De Dulle Koe". It was a wonderful new clean place and a very nice young couple Sybren and Celine taking care. Some animals roamed around on the farm and the mooing of the cow was my alarm clock in the morning!
The hen and her chicks just some hours old.
De Dulle Koe
Lectures from several artist from Austria: Petra Lindenbauer, South Africa: Blayne Knox and Taiwan: Ming-Wen Lin and Shu Ling Wu.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT: it is a carousel of pictures!!!!
With Nora Van Driessche from Belgium.
Dinner with Yvetti van den Berg from Netherlands, Martina Dielen from Netherlands, Yocelyne Blanchard from Canada, Karen Loader from South Africa and Monique Braune from Canada.
With Lou Smedts the organizer of the whole exhibition, congress and International Ceramic Art Project.
With Alvin Tan Teck Heng during Taiwanese tea ceremony presented by Kun-Chen Tsai
Yesterday, the exposition was open again. It was a relaxed day with visitors, lectures and movies.
And the tea ceremony of Kun-Chen Tsai of Taiwan.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT: it is a carousel of pictures!!!!
Presentation by Karen Loader
The lecture of Karen Loader. She is from the UK but lives at the moment in South Africa. Her art work is inspired by nature which is her profession as botanist.
We left early in the morning to go to the Boom Brickyard Museum in the Rupelstreek.
The Romans introduced the ceramics for making roof tiles and bricks in Belgium but it got lost when the Roman Empire perished. Only in the 13th century, with the start of the monasteries the firing of bricks and roof tiles revived until this day. There is a huge clay deposit because of the big river de Schelde. Clay is gathered and processed, formed, dried and fired. There are different kind of clays: for the flower pots it is quite course; for the roof tiles less course and for the floor tiles clay with high plasticity and hardly no pores is used. There were many, many factories!
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT: it is a carousel of pictures!!!!
During midday we drove to Brewery "The Anker" in the city Mechelen. There are many beer breweries in Belgium for which they are well-known.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT: it is a carousel of pictures!!!!
Some artists had left because of other commitments in life. With still a big group left we went with a tour bus to Oostende, a city near the beach. Fortunately, it did rain during the lunch what we enjoyed in a beautiful old hotel palace! Then we went out and enjoyed the beach, sea and walking around.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT: it is a caroussel of pictures!!!!
Yesterday we did go on a bus to Brugge, a beautiful town with lots of Medieval houses from 1200-1500. It was an bustling international city with around 45.000 people living in it. Now there are about 20.000 people living in the city. And a very nice way to get to know each other better.
Gerda Genijn made a beautiful video of the day!
https://www.facebook.com/gerda.genijn/videos/1124598104307150/
It has been a while that I posted a blog.
But this time I will try to keep it up especially now that I created my new website which makes it easier to see my art and follow my entries.
Today, I will go to Vichte in Belgium to show some of my Glazed Horsehair Bottles in this exhibition and to attend the congress of lectures, movies and outings with many interesting ceramic artists from over the world.
