16 Sep 2010

'The Raw and the Cooked', Norwergian Contemporary Ceramics in Paris

The Raw and the Cooked (Le Cru & le Cuit) showcases contemporary Norwegian ceramics at la Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil, Paris, from September 12th to 25th, 2010

For the 44th General Assembly of the International Academy of Ceramics, the Ateliers d'Art de France is organising a 'Ceramics Showcase', which includes visits to 40 galleries and cultural centres.

The Favardin & de Verneuil Gallery is one of the featured stops of the 'Ceramics Showcase.' From September 12th to 25th 2010, the gallery's exhibition, «Le Cru et le Cuit», will present, for the first time in France, a selection of fifteen of the most talented Norwegian contemporary artists.

Brought together by the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts, the exhibiting artists are:

Heidi Bjørgan, Jens Erland, Kathrine Køster Holst, Trine Hovden, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Liv Midbøe, Anne Helene Mydland, Irene Nordli, Kjell Rylander, Tove Lise Røkke Olsen, Caroline Slotte, �yvind Suul, Anne Thomassen, Marit Tingleff and Beth Wyller.

The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss used the cookery image to indicate the fundamental opposition between what is natural, or raw, and what is culturally created, or prepared. Borrowing the title of his book 'Le Cru et le Cuit' ('The Raw and the Cooked') the exhibition uses his metaphor of transformation to describe ceramics—an art of fire—through which the artists, as they shape the clay, give form to what is formless. Freed from any functional constraints, ceramics offers infinite possibilities of imparting meaning on matter. Chosen by curator Jorunn Veiteberg, the variety of exhibited pieces reflects the scope of Norwegian ceramics that ranges from chaos to order and from the unfired to the fired.

While some of these artists prefer working with clay bodies, others use industrially produced objects as their basic material. While some play with the utilitarian tradition of ceramics, others address the relationship between contemporary ceramics and sculpture. Based the way the artists use a critical reflection on their approach to become more innovative, the multiplicity of shapes, colours and sizes of the twenty works exhibited in 'The Raw and The Cooked' provides an overview of contemporary Norwegian ceramics.

From September 12th to 25th, the Favardin & de Verneuil Gallery offers an in-depth view of the very earth of Norway and extends an invitation to the opening of the exhibition on: Sunday September 12th, beginning at 5pm.

Press contact: Sylvia Beder Communication Culture
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