Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The French mecca of porcelain, Limoges



After my exhibition opening in Ludwigsburg, we took a turn towards west and traveled to this small French town, Limoges, to see my Finnish ceramics power sister setting up her exhibition at the local City Hall, l'Hôtel de Ville. While ago she took a part to this biannual competition where the artists were supposed to create an art work together with one of the local porcelain factories. She traveled back and forth between Helsinki and Limoges making the installation happen and now it was time for the exhibition and the judging of the art works. My friend did well and her piece was absolutely beautiful.

Mari was working long hours at the exhibition space and meanwhile we took a tour at the local ceramics museum, The Musée National Adrien Dubouché Limoges. The collection there was massive and the permanent exhibition gives a good example of all the professionality the town has. Every single soup dish is cast flawless and the factory workers are nothing but masters of their own craft. 
The tiny porcelain œillère I illustrated below, got me thinking that no matter how tiny and meaningless your ceramic piece of dap might seem, there's a chance that it could even end up in a museum. If an object is important for a person it's an important object to exist. Visiting ceramic museums fills me up with inspiration and lefts me with an urge to fill up my notebook with sketches.