Daugavpils receives creators in Ceramic Laboratory 2021
Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, in cooperation with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, hosts the 9th international ceramic art symposium “Ceramic Laboratory”.
For the ninth time running, Daugavpils Fortress is captured by ceramicists – for an entire fortnight, symposium participants from seven countries unite forces in a single front, making ceramic artworks and experimenting with different firing techniques. Inspired by the exceptional atmosphere of Daugavpils Fortress and sheltered from the heat by the cooling walls of the Rothko Centre, they create world-class art.
On 9 July, the symposium team of 15 artists opened an exhibition at “4METRES”, the new glass gallery of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics in the courtyard of 8 Hospitāļa Street Daugavpils. This preview show is assembled from the pieces the artists brought along when they came to the symposium. That means the works were made in familiar settings, in the artists’ personal studios, with their standard equipment and habitual firing techniques.
Conversely, at the symposium, the participants enter a new, unfamiliar environment that some might even find exotic. Here, they do laboratory-style experiments – share experiences, observe their colleagues at work, test new materials and try unusual firings. Some prefer more controlled experiments, producing sample pieces from the available range of materials, whilst others put caution aside and surrender fully to the irresistible pull of the unpredictable. Taken together, they fill the symposium timeframe with new emotions, ideas and insights that may very well bring unexpected twists and turns to the artists’ individual creative journeys.
The fortnight’s work will culminate in an exhibition at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre – art lovers will be able to enjoy symposium outputs starting from 4 p.m. on 23 July. Once the show is over, the new pieces will be incorporated in the Rothko Centre ceramics collection, strengthening Latvia’s broadest assemblage of ceramics and reaffirming the symbolic status of Daugavpils as the ceramic capital of the region.
Symposium participants:
Sunbin Lim (South Korea)
Weronika Surma (Poland)
Joanna Opalska-Brzecka (Poland)
Mingda Du (China)
Pille Kaleviste (Estonia)
Solveiga Gutautė (Lithuania)
Rūta Šipalytė (Lithuania)
Hanna Miadzvedzeva (Belarus)
Katerina Geiduka (Belarus/ Latvia)
Ilona Abdulajeva (Latvia)
Aivars Baranovskis (Latvia)
Nellija Dzalba (Latvia)
Kaspars Geiduks (Latvia)
Una Gura (Latvia)
Lilija Zeiļa (Latvia)
This year, the international symposium “Ceramic Laboratory” is part of the Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus cross-border cooperation project “Cross-Border Loyalty Programme for Culture and Tourism” (project acronym – “Loyal to Culture and Tourism”, No. ENI-LLB-1-021).
The symposium is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation.
