A municipality in Paris, Sèvres, is known as Cité de la Céramique. Founded in 1824, the Cité de la Céramique produced the first museum in the world devoted to fine ceramic art. The museum expanded in 1975 to include modern ceramic work and this spring it took part in Wanted Design (May 17 – 20, 2013), an annual international design week held in New York City that showcases new creative talents and innovative design and seeks to stimulate creative exchanges across the fields of art, design and architecture. The French national ceramics museum held two presentations, one of established designers and one of a “new generation” of designers.
Works by two artists in the latter category are pictured here. Jean-Baptiste Fastrez’s GrisGris or “talismans” are miniature hand-thrown vases, which the artist says are meant to play with porcelain’s weightlessness and fragility. These vases are mounted on rounded metal bases and teeter back-and-forth like an inflatable punching bag. The decorative elements were designed digitally and created using a water jet. Fastrez states the project sought to combine the museum’s more-traditional methods with contemporary design techniques.
Sébastien Cordoleani’s hand mirrors in porcelain, enamel, platinum, or gold were cut from a single mold and produced in collaboration with the museum.
Cordoleani and Fastrez joined the new designers, which also included Antoine Boudin, Franck Fontana, Francois Dumas, Brynjar Sigurdarson and Michel Charlot. The second exhibition included major designers such as Andrea Branzi, Pierre Charpin, Naoto Fukasawa, Michele de Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass.
Above image: GrisGris by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez from 2013. Courtesy of the designer.
Square and rectangle plate hand mirrors by Sebastian Cordoléani and Franck Fontana from 2013. Courtesy of the designers.
Add your valued opinion to this post.