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Contemporary ceramics: Fondazione Officine Saffi Award finalists


Contemporary ceramics

Fondazione Officine Saffi celebrated its opening in its new location at Via Niccolini 35a. The reconstructed space of the former glass factory, which settled in the area back in the 19th century, now has all the tools necessary to promote ceramic art.


The new headquarters of the Foundation housed a large exhibition space and workshops for those wishing to learn how to work with ceramics in various techniques, from hand modeling to working on a pottery wheel. The Foundation invites everyone to participate in training programs, regardless of status and age, and the courses provide both work with beginners and advanced ceramists.


Next door is the Officine Saffi Lab with kilns that provide the opportunity to experiment with glazes, as well as an apartment for residence participants, in which professionals: artists, craftsmen, designers, curators, and researchers will be able to take part on a competitive basis.


The opening of the new space as part of the fifth Officine Saffi Award biennale, dedicated to contemporary ceramics, was timed with the exhibition (un)Known Territories. From 900 submitted applications, the jury selected 32 finalists.


Among them are the Frenchwoman Eloise Piro with sculptures similar to wicker baskets, and rainbow bubbles Angel Oloshove from the USA, Hanna Miadzvedzeva from Belarus with an interesting author’s texture covering the surface of a round sculpture, Tessa Eastman from the UK, creating objects reminiscent of sea corals and skillfully using a combination of bright glazes. It is impossible not to note the participation in the finals of the sculptor Irina Razumovskaya with a laconic monolithic sculpture.


The jury awarded first prize and a prize of ten thousand euros to the Peruvian artist Javier Bravo de Rueda. His work captivated us with its ability to reveal the potential of terracotta, demonstrating its ability to be at once a pictorial surface, sculpture, and load-bearing structure.


Among the winners was Mexican ceramist Andres Anza, who recently won the Loewe Craft Foundation competition. He will go to the Guldagergård residence in Denmark.



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