Breaking Ground with first international ceramic Triennale

Team L&M

47 artists
1 symposium
3 filmmakers
3 masterclasses
6 children’s workshops
1 book launch

All this and more can be experienced at the first international ceramic event, The Indian Ceramics Triennale titled Breaking Ground. Launched on August 31 at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, the Triennale will be on display until November 18. Breaking Ground promises to be an exciting event that sets the ground for a continuing three-year cycle of art shows that celebrate the vast possibilities of the medium of clay.

The event, organised by Jawahar Kala Kendra in collaboration with Contemporary Clay Foundation, has developed and grown under the advice and experience of Peter Nagy (Director, Nature Morte Gallery), Ray Meeker (Co-Founder, Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry), renowned artist and educator and Pooja Sood (Director General, Jawahar Kala Kendra). It has been conceived and driven by a six-member artist-led curatorial team including Anjani Khanna, Madhvi Subrahmanian, Neha Kudchadkar, Reyaz Badaruddin, Sharbani Das Gupta and Vineet Kacker.

The Triennale is an exploration of clay’s versatility in both scale and materiality; showcasing both experimental and experiential art, ranging from raw, unfired clay manifestations to interactions with digital technologies. The architecture of Jawahar Kala Kendra has made possible large site-specific installations and performative artworks lending a unique tenor to the Triennale.

The Indian artists were selected through a nationwide open call and foreign artists through invitation. Stalwarts like P Daroz and Ray Meeker, along with a diverse group of both emerging or mid-career Indian artists have taken advantage of the unique spatial possibilities offered by the Jawahar Kala Kendra to produce an array of stimulating, thought-provoking works.

The 12 international participating artists are established, highly respected practitioners including British artist Kate Malone, co-presenter of the BBC’s popular Great Pottery Throwdown, who has set up a studio at JKK with her studio team for over a week. Other international artists include Korean artist Juree Kim, former artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum and an exhibitor at the British Ceramics Biennial, internationally recognized Japanese artist Hoshino Saturo and Ester Beck from Israel who will exhibit a performance-based work. Jane Perryman from the UK will present a collaborative project of ceramic and sound while Jacques Kaufmann, the president of the UNESCO affiliated International Academy of Ceramics created an architecturally scaled work. Jessika Edgar of the US and Danijela Pivašević-Tenner of Germany are also among the invited foreign artists.