to attach to Wifredo Lam all those stereotypes that naturally accompany such an energetic stentorian and epigraphic statement as the one rendered in Mosquera his black pride imposes his art in white Europe redeeming his people from centuries of colonial abuse to derive such an image from Lam’s art and words is a bestiality equal thought him a sort of witch doctor and were surprised by the fact that he ordered an aperitif at the bar exactly as they did: it is Lam himself who recounted this anecdote in an interview with Oggi in the early 1970s The situation is decidedly more complex: the son of an octogenarian Chinese immigrant and a local woman (father and mother were separated by an age difference of forty years) given the widespread racism that raged in Cuba at the time and that he had to endure because of his mixed origins with Lévy-Strauss and with Lévy-Bruhl or in New York amidst abstract expressionists And when it fell to him to return to Cuba in ’41 because the Nazis had invaded France He did not like the fact that Western museums collected African art but he in turn was a strong collector of the very works he would not have wanted to see in museums (although it should be emphasized that this form of collecting was for Lam a way of claiming his origins and thus the heritage of his ancestors) His works are strongly inspired by santería and Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean cults The urge to rediscover his origins had come to him not from an innate awareness but by frequenting the cosmopolitan Paris of the early twentieth century: until he was thirty-six years old “the magic of the forest and the directness of primitive men,” but in Albissola Marina he lived in a beautiful villa with a swimming pool amidst the comforts: he may be accused of inconsistency (although consistency was for Wifredo Lam a source of redemption the humblest traditional element an artist could handle Wifredo Lam got to feel “a real sense of belonging,” as Eskil testifies Visitors to the exhibition are given the option to begin their journey indifferently from Savona or Albissola Marina from the ceramics village that one can start with a good overview because at the MuDA Exhibition Center in Albissola Marina the public is not only duly introduced to the history of the relationship between Lam and ceramics but also has the opportunity to get a concise idea of the Cuban artist’s entire ceramic production to be then deepened in the thematic sections of the Museum of Ceramics in Savona the curators have had the good sense not to create a simple summary in Albissola because this chapter of the exhibition also includes works that are fundamental to understanding the way Lam’s language changed over the years as well as a selection of works by other artists close to Lam who worked during the same period in Albissola One of the most dense moments of the exhibition is the comparison of a fragmentary terracotta by Lam from 1959 one of his very first experiments with terracotta and instinctiveness with which the artist etches the clay to trace the silhouettes of the figures typical of his repertoire (real or fantasy animals primordial totems): the essentiality of Lam’s sign will have a certain fascination for Roberto Crippa who had begun his own research on totemism before Lam arrived in Albissola and still managed to catch the strali of Piero Manzoni In an article published in Pensiero Nazionale just in 1959 praised his “characters that originate from the wild totems of his land and from the Cubist lesson” (the young colleague had thus grasped the two different souls of his art adding that “it is only since a few years that here in Italy some mediocre artists have begun to imitate him; but the local copies make a very poor figure in front of the high level and true value of the originals.” In the article Manzoni did not mention Crippa’s name appear in a letter sent two years earlier to Enrico Baj (“I think that it is now time to make a clear attack on the posthumous totemisms of Crippa and Peverelli”) as Luca Bochicchio explains well in the catalog Lam’s totems and those of Crippa and the other Europeans who were providing their own interpretation of non-European arts (in a nearby showcase is exhibited a totemic Flower by Mario Rossello) are incomparable because they are the result of independent research whose work was hastily branded as a “banal romantic expressionist regurgitation.” It seems superfluous to point out the excess of severity in Manzoni’s lapidary judgment since much has been written about Jorn in these pages: however it is interesting to observe his work side by side with Lam’s in order to understand how the two artists managed to converse in a fruitful way (in this case even on a formal level with Jorn etching red earth and working with black engobe to achieve that bichromatic effect typical of many of Lam’s ceramics) moreover forging a sincere and lasting friendship traced in detail by Daniele Panucci in the catalog: the two artists were “capable of activating themselves like ethnoanthropologists and setting out on the trail of their own origins and the popular and mythological artistic expressions of their respective home cultures”: the fact that Jorn was Danish did not make him any less attentive than Lam to his own roots an entire wall offers an intense overview of Lam’s experimentalism in Albissola Marina: the artist Giovanni Poggi and Mario Pastorino (specifically it was Giovanni Poggi who was Lam’s tutelary deity the “torniante,” as on this strip of the Ligurian coast the specialists of the potter’s wheel are called on this strip of the Ligurian coast far from mastering the secrets of the trade had occasion to reason at length about his modes of expression his ceramics were nothing more than extensions of his painting activity: Lam did nothing more than paint on terracotta plates what he previously painted on canvas his experiments began to acquire a continuous and steady autonomy from painting: these continuous changes of register can be appreciated in the plates that the curators have lined up in the exhibition with the glazes often acquiring a relief and solidity that give an almost sculptural aspect to certain works while in others the spreading of color follows a spontaneity reminiscent of that of his friend Jorn until reaching the extreme peaks of the work De la terre in which Lam arrives at pure abstractionism working even with fragments of various materials such as glass It was as if in Albissola Marina the artist had rediscovered his origins he had found there an environment entirely congenial to his research: a land of simple And he happened there at a time when the city had become a kind of great international cenacle capable of attracting the most up-to-date artists in Europe are the Magiciens de la Mer that give the exhibition its title: not a vacuous reference to the more famous Magiciens de la Terre from the 1989 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou between the curators who chose the title and the magiciens there is not that detachment from the Centre Pompidou exhibition that seemed problematic at the time and that had provided pretexts for even fierce criticism (curator Jean Hubert Martin was accused of having carved a furrow between Western art and that of the magiciens seen somewhat as artist-shamans according to outdated clichés ) if only because the curators of the exhibition were born and raised in the world of the “magicians of the sea”: by this expression they mean to refer to all those who made that unrepeatable magical moment possible: the master potters formerly known as “arcanists,” Stella Cattaneo explains since they were “holders of the mysterious recipes for the creation of clay mixtures glazes and firings,” and the artists whom Lam had found upon his arrival and who would continue to frequent Albissola for at least a good two decades they knew how to create an alchemy capable of giving rise to one of the most fertile and important seasons in the history of twentieth-century art And among the goals of the exhibition is to provide the correct placement of Wifredo Lam within this context “this curious convergence between research derived from different European avant-garde movements and currents was vneuta to be created which found in the reactive and dynamic matter of clay the most suitable medium to give substance to irrational and primitive (in the sense of primordial) visions.” Savona’s figurative culture (in ancient times pottery was produced in Savona) was filled with hybrid the researches of artists who worked in western Liguria abounded with “ambiguous and metamorphic bifacial and hybrid beings,” “totemic robotic and natural compositions.” Lam’s researches drew energy from this context and in turn provided suggestions to the artists who worked here are his totem poles (also in the Savona section one can admire some plates on which one can observe the extravagant idols that were seen in Albissola): for Lam they are a symbol of cultural reappropriation much more elaborate than the totems of a Crippa or a Rossello but by a methodical work on structural and social awareness within which santería assumes the value of a cultural system.” Lam’s totem poles mix human animal and plant elements in accordance with the principles of santería whereby devotees seek to touch the soul of all things believing that the universe is dominated by “aché,” the spiritual energy that can be seized by the faithful to be guided in the world that the choice of the title “totem” for his works is culturally oriented but not in the sense we would believe: using a term that was indeed derived from a Native American language but which is nonetheless an Anglicization and especially is used in anthropology Lam was revealing a considerable epistemological distance “from the very culture he was seemingly naturally trying to evoke with his art revealing himself to be no different from his European and American colleagues,” the scholar wrote that Lam may have reasoned about this choice and especially that the hybrid and metamorphic forms of his works were in themselves sufficient to denote the origins of his culture without distorting their bearing The varied and exuberant hybridity of Lam’s totems seems indeed unknown to his colleagues: this is the clearest indication of the naturalness with which the Cuban artist constructed his own totems In a pair of plates exhibited in Albissola one sees two women with two birds on their heads: in Afro-Cuban culture this is a symbol of knowledge one admires a pair of depictions of the woman-horse a symbol of the divinity that takes possession of a person’s body to infuse it with its aura of sanctity (it should be remembered that santería blends elements of Catholic belief with elements of the animist religions of the African slaves deported to the Americas): the horse is an allegory of theorisha (the saint) who ’rides’ Among the animals Lam most often depicts in his works are birds which play a prominent role in santería rituals since they are commonly immolated as offerings to the deities (devotees believe that orisha drink the blood of sacrificed animals to strengthen their aché) a section is devoted precisely to animals: Significant is the comparison with a 1963 plate by Roberto Crippa which reveals clear points of contact with Lam’s works although the artist displays a cleanliness and minimalism that are unknown to Lam and with two other extraordinary mirrored ceramics also by Crippa depicting his dog Fungo taking on the forms of a very elaborate tureen that seems almost to be made of copper and the other translating instead into almost geometric forms the figure of a centipede The works on display also capture and fascinate by their stylistic features and formal references: two sections are devoted to metamorphosis and sign Metamorphosis is to be understood as much on the symbolic level (the hybrid forms mentioned above) as on the material level: thus extremely experimental works are exhibited through which Lam and the artists who worked in Albissola transform matter by giving it a different appearance than one would expect (as in Eva Sørensen’s strongly textured plates where multiple layers of earth and color thicken) or again by combining clay and earth with different materials or by achieving quite particular and unusual tactile or visual effects: see or Rinaldo Rossello’s curious and little-known Spatial Little Men with their unusual reflections and with the texture of the material changing dramatically on the front and back or Ansgar Elde’s panel that combines engobes and glazes to give a strong impression of movement to his colorful creatures that wiggle and transform on the surface of the clay imprinted on a surface or left free in space offered artists: the visitor will find a marvelous vase by Lam in which figures typical of his imagination are etched on a vase in the colors of the sunset and with the surface giving the appearance of a sandy texture Then there is a plate by Giuseppe Capogrossi where the typical trident signs on which the Roman artist used to base his figuration are combined until we come to two Spatial Concepts by Lucio Fontana (the holes in particular) that dialogue with a plate by Maria Papa Rostkowska whose surface is engraved with vertical signs reminiscent of Fontana’s cuts and with the aforementioned plate by Eva Sørensen that cannot fail to recall the Natures of Fontana himself Lam et les Magiciens de la mer is the test of maturity for the very young Museum of Ceramics in Savona born only in 2014 and run by a team of enthusiastic 30-year-olds who were able to organize an excellent research exhibition (several able to lend itself to multiple levels of reading Arrangements that put the visitor in a position to walk through the exhibition freely but without ever losing the thread Concise apparatuses but capable of offering a complete information framework (there are also in-depth insights made available through QR codes) A rich calendar of collateral initiatives (a guided tour with the curators is highly recommended) and able to offer many insights: from the personal history of Lam’s arrival in Albissola retraced also with an accurate documentary section that the public will find on the second floor of the Museum of Ceramics to the focus on the artists who frequented Lam’s own workshops at that time from the insights on more purely formal issues to the delicate yet profound way in which the exhibition manages to talk about decolonization it could be said that the Savona and Albissola Marina exhibition demonstrates that it is possible to address the issue in a natural and Surisday Reyes Martínez: a good compendium of the exhibition and a complete and up-to-date publication on Lam’s ceramics to be seen also as an excellent starting point to delve into the rest of the artist’s production as well The public will find between Savona and Albissola Marina an exciting narrative and a new exhibition: it is the first retrospective dedicated to the relationship between Wifredo Lam and ceramics a new topic of investigation for art research of the time The exhibition therefore draws additional importance from the fact that it begins to fill a void insiders will be able to measure themselves against a fresh capable of demonstrating that it is possible to work on art history in new and transversal ways and that research can be done without losing sight of the public It could not have been otherwise for an exhibition set up according to those same criteria of openness and sharing that fostered the birth of that legendary community of artists and ceramic masters that even today many That same community that welcomed Lam as if it had always known him The 2023 national beach volleyball tours got underway over the weekend in Hungary and Italy with men’s and women’s events in Tata and Albissola Marina National tour season continued in full swing with events also held in Czechia Nymburk hosted a Czech national tour women’s tournament with 32 participating teams Marketa Svozilova and Kylie Neuschaeferova claimed a 2-1 (23-21 15-9) victory over Miroslava Dunarova and Daniela Resova in Sunday’s final Valerie Dvornikova and Michaela Brinkova took the bronze after a 2-0 (21-12 21-17) shutout of Ivana Cebakova and Anna Siruckova in the third place match All results and standings The second stop on the 2023 Estonian national tour was held in Tartu with 16-team main draws in each gender Mihkel Nuut and Karl Maidle got back at Dimitriy Korotkov and Urmas Piik for the loss in the previous weekend’s final and took a hard-fought 2-1 (17-21 Latvia’s Arnis Relins and Rinalds Aispurs mastered a 2-0 (21-16 21-16) shutout of Kristo Kollo and Karl Jaani for the bronze Men’s main draw results There was an international final four in the women’s tournament (pictured in the main photo Ieva Dumbauskaite and Skalve Krizanauskaite defeated Vlada Oganauskiene and Lilija Firinovic by 2-1 (21-19 while Estonia’s Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson and Eva Liisa Kuivonen handed Finland’s Ester Hirvonen and Peppiina Maenpaa a 2-0 (21-11 Women’s main draw results Czechia and Morocco participated in the women’s main draw at the fourth stop on the 2023 French national tour in Saint-Germain-en-Laye A mixed French-Czech pairing of Laura Longuet and Vendula Haragova topped the podium after a 2-0 (21-15 21-16) shutout of Agathe Rolland and Florine Gosselin in the final Naty Molinos and Lucile Colin took the bronze upon a 2-0 (21-13 21-19) sweep of the third-place match with Victoria Beguelin and Celia Molinos Women’s main draw results A team from Monaco was among the 12 that competed in the men’s main draw Julien Legrand and Maxime Capet took a 2-0 (21-18 21-13) victory over Simon Lebecq and Paul Nicole Jeremy Ullmann and Vianney Pollet managed a 2-1 (16-21 15-11) comeback against Hugo Alimi and Noubet Ngatoum Men’s main draw results Thessaloniki welcomed a top-category event of the Greek national tour Antiol Kola and Stylianos Tzioumakas won the 12-team men’s main draw 21-19) victory over Iason Kanellos and Georgios Terzoglou Dimitrios Chatzinikolaou and Stavros Ntallas and Panagiotis Ioannidis and Thodoris Papadimitriou shared the third place in the final standings The 12-team women’s main draw action finished with Dionysia Matiou and Liza Triantafillidi’s 2-0 (21-12 21-19) sweep of the final against Dimitra Karagkouni and Christodoulou Chrysanthi The third place was shared by Mirto Kalamaridou and Dimitra Manavi and Ioanna Perdikaki and Georgia Maria Antonakaki All results and standings A post shared by Hellenic Volleyball Federation (@volleyball.gr) The 2023 Hungarian national tour got underway with an event in Tata A mixed Romanian-Hungarian pair became the first winners of the season Beata Vaida and Lilla Villam lived up to their status of tournament favourites and won the 16-team women’s main draw 21-16) shutout of the duo of Villam’s younger sister A straight-set win was recorded in the third place match as well Stefania Kun and Kinga Windisch claimed the bronze by hammering out a 2-0 (21-17 21-13) victory over 15-year-old Mirtill Breuer and her 17-year-old partner Dora Kristof Artur Hajos and Bence Streli were the expected winners of the men’s 16-team main draw tournament they managed to come back from a set down on the way to a 2-1 (18-21 15-11) win over Csanad Franyo and Matyas Papp The third-place match also offered a three-set comeback battle with Levente Polgar and Marton Udvarhelyi defeating Balazs Benko and Botond Olah by 2-1 (15-21 All results and standings A total of four dual-gender stops on the Hungarian national tour have been scheduled Csepel will welcome the second event from 14 to 16 July Abadszalok will the host a tournament from 4 to 6 August and the last event is set to take place on Lupa Beach in Budapest on 12 and 13 August Albissola Marina played host to the opening event on the 2023 Italian national tour 34 duos per gender took part in the tournament Manuel Alfieri and Davide Dal Molin surprised reigning Italian champions Andrea Abbiati and Tiziano Andreatta in the men’s final by producing a 2-1 (17-21 The bronze medal match was even more dramatic and the tie-breaker went deep into overtime before Mateo Martino and Marco Caminati could celebrate a 2-1 (19-21 26-24) comeback victory over Fabrizio Manni and Francesco Vanni Men’s results and standings Giada Benazzi and Michela Lantignotti also had to dig deep into the overtime of a third set to win the women’s final against Claudia Puccinelli and Aurora Mattavelli by a tight 2-1 (19-21 The third-place game was more straightforward with Alice Gradini and Federica Frasca delivering a 2-0 (21-16 21-16) shutout of Italian national team members Sofia Arcaini and Chiara They Women’s results and standings After Albisola Marina, the 2023 Italian national tour will feature another eight stops: Palinuro (23 – 25 June), Montesilvano (7 – 9 July), Beinasco (14 – 16 July), Catania (21 – 23 July), Ciro Marina (28 – 30 July), Cordenons (11 – 13 August), Vasto (25 – 27 August) and Bellaria-Igea Marina (8 – 10 September). A post shared by Federazione Italiana Pallavolo (@federazioneitalianapallavolo) The third event on the 2023 Japanese national tour was held in Yokohama with the participation of 10 pairs per gender Akiko Hasegawa and Yurika Sakaguchi mastered a 2-0 (21-15 21-18) shutout of Suzuka Hashimoto and Reika Murakami Miyu Sakamoto and Mayu Sawame cruised to a 2-0 (21-12 21-16) sweep of Harumi Sakai and Miharu Kashihara Straight-set medal matches were registered in the men’s tournament as well Yusuke Ishijima (Gottsu) and Takumi Takahashi produced a 2-0 (21-17 21-15) sweep of the gold medal match against Kai Kurokawa and Kosuke Fukushima Kensuke Shoji and Jumpei Ikeda took the bronze after a 2-0 (21-19 21-15) victory over Yoshiumi Hasegawa and Masato Kurasaka All results and standings A post shared by JVA Beach Volleyball Official (@jva_beachvolley) With 12 men’s teams participating in the main draw of last week’s Dutch national tour stop in Arnhem Thijmen Heemskerk and Mick Toet won the gold medals after a 2-0 (21-12 21-16) sweep of Sunday’s final against Quinten Groenewold and Mees Sengers A similar result was registered in the bronze medal game with Lennaert Hogenhout and Kyran Versteegen celebrating a 2-0 (21-13 21-16) victory over Cain van Hal and Tom van Reeuwijk Men’s main draw results 13 teams took part in the women’s main draw in Arnhem Lisa Luini and Serena van der Made topped the podium after a hard-fought 2-0 (21-14 23-21) straight-setter against Lynn van Mill and Iris Reinders in the gold medal match The bronze medal game was pushed to three sets with Marly Bak and Bjorna Gras coming back from a set down to claim a 2-1 (20-22 15-6) victory over Sarah Knol and Loladina Zwaanswijk Women’s main draw results A post shared by beachvolleybalnl (@beachvolleybalnl) Malgorzata Ciezkowska and Urszula Lunio topped the final standings in the 16-team women’s main draw at the Polish national tour stop in Stalowa Wola 21-18) victory over Aneta Kaczmarek and Julia Gierczynska After a hard-fought tie-breaker in the bronze medal match Justyna Tylutki and Martyna Kloda emerged with a 2-1 (21-12 19-17) win over Julia Kielak and Maja Kruczek Two foreign duos met in the final of the 16-team men’s main draw Lithuania’s Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas took a 2-0 (21-15 21-16) shutout of Czech indoor volleyball stars Jan Hadrava and Donovan Dzavoronok to claim the trophy The bronze went to Jaroslaw Lech and Tomasz Jaroszczak after a tight 2-0 (24-22 21-17) win over Jedrzej Brozyniak and Piotr Janiak in the third-place match Lithuania v Czechia in the Polish national tour stop men’s final in Stalowa Wola (Photo credits: siatka.org) With 16 pairs per gender competing in the main draws of the third stop on the 2023 Slovakian national tour in Bratislava Lubos Nemec and Adrian Petruf claimed their second gold in a row after a 2-0 (21-13 21-13) blowout of Marek Ludha and Martin Pavelka in the men’s final The Czech pairing of Robert Kufa and Martin Melmuka took the bronze 21-19) win over Marek Meciar and Martin Petro in the match for the third pace Men’s main draw results and standings Andrea Bundzelova and Lesia Slezakova improved on their Zwolen silver from the previous week and claimed gold in Bratislava after getting back at Zwolen gold medallists Lubica Siposova and Martina Terenova with a 2-1 (21-18 Ella Erteltova and Emma Erteltova registered a 2-0 (21-14 21-1) over Laura Kubištova and Mariana Tomasova for the bronze Women’s main draw results and standings Lithuania and Poland took part in the 12-team women’s main draw at the third stop on the Spanish national tour but only Spanish pairs made it to the podium Nazaret Florian and Carolina Fernandez Da Silva produced a 2-1 (19-21 15-11) comeback victory over Raquel Palma and Paula Santamaria Semifinal losers Alejandra Salleras and Maria Gomez and Luisa De Miranda and Ines Villa shared the third place Spanish teams made it to the men’s podium as well but the tournament also featured participation from Argentina Antonio Saucedo and Alvaro Viera won the final against Daniel Ruiz Posadas and Felix Vasquez by 2-0 (21-19 while the third place was shared between Manuel de Amo and Ivan Corrales All main draw results and standings 🏆 Nazaret Florián/Carolina Fdez da Silva y Antonio Saucedo/Álvaro Viera se llevan el título del #CNVP2023 de Fuenlabrada 🥈Palma/Santamaría y Ruiz/Vásquez cedieron en unas apasionantes finales que pusieron fin a 3 intensos días de competiciónhttps://t.co/680t6MBzcV — Madrid Beach Volley (@MadridBVolley) June 18, 2023 The FIVB is the governing body responsible for all forms of Volleyball on a global level Working closely with national federations and private enterprises to develop Volleyball as a popular media and entertainment sport FIVB Fédération Internationale de Volleyball Château Les Tourelles Edouard-Sandoz 2-4 1006 Lausanne Switzerland Phone: +41 213 453 535 Fax: +41 213 453 545 Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative the suggestions that the artists of "Il Milione" drew from the French movements in particular from the Abstraction-Création association which Fontana moreover joined precisely in 1935 all contributed to create a particularly fertile and suggestive environment which ended up being resonant on the manifesto that Fontana was to create for the competition was looking for a new advertising poster that would advertise its passenger shipping services at a time when ships were precisely the main means of transportation of choice for long voyages The poster was appreciated because of its immediacy and communicative ability through which Fontana succeeded in conveying the message that the group intended to get across to potential customers The reasons with which the jury awarded the prize to Fontana which also included a quick description of the work the travel magazine of Lloyd Triestino and Cosulich (two of the largest companies of the time: Cosulich but maintained a certain autonomy until 1936) in an article entitled The Success of the Great National Competition: "the prize-winning sign the themes imposed by the call for entries producing an admirable work of art as well as effectively advertising: a globe hinted at in its essential elements circumference and some trace of parallels and meridians sprung up like a ray of sunshine." Economy of colors hues that might palpate a direct reference to Abstraction-Création (one of the two founders was also one of the founders of the De Stijl group) are the only ones that characterize the poster's elements from the globe (a simple circle with shaded contours three arcs to form the polar circles and a meridian and a horizontal line for the Equator) to the outline of the ship via the claim "Express Services for the Whole World" and the names of the companies and they help to grant the poster thatessentiality deemed so effective by the jury and that ensured the work such popularity that it continued to be reproduced The work allowed Fontana to circulate his name among shipping companies: the poster was but the first of several works the artist produced for shipping companies he was commissioned to make four reliefs for the Floating Pavilion that the Italian shipping companies were presenting at the International Exhibition in Paris whom Marinetti had nicknamed Tullio d'Albisola (Albisola Superiore 1971): he had been the intermediary of the anti-fascist art critic Edoardo Persico It was thanks to this acquaintance that Fontana decided to deepen his relationship with ceramics and move to Albissola Marina where he began a fruitful production of ceramics which he never abandoned for the rest of his career so much so that in the 1950s he decided to locate a studio had adhered to the Futurist Ceramics Manifesto and began to collaborate actively with the Mazzotti family owners of one of Albissola's historic ceramic factories And it was from the Mazzotti's kilns that the five ceramic panels destined for the "Conte Grande," an ocean liner built for Lloyd Sabaudo and launched in 1927 came out: it served the Genoa-New York line but was later also destined for voyages to South America that it was requisitioned by the Brazilian government and handed over to the U.S the "Conte Grande," chartered by the Italia Company The first voyage of the modernized liner took place on July 15 from Genoa to Buenos Aires (curiously enough had repaired when Italy took part in World War II the sculptor had been commissioned to make ceramic panels that were to decorate the lobby of one of the galleries of the "Conte Grande," the first-class one and they represented the Equator (the only one lost) The intent was to ideally link the stages touched by the "Conte Grande" during its ocean crossings and Fontana 's works were part of a wide-ranging artistic project the history of which is summarized in Cecilia Chilosi 's essay entitled Mediterraneo The Knights of the Apocalypse: the four ceramic panels aboard the Conte Grande and Fontana's contribution to the architecture of Nave the only essay on the work created by the artist for the liner needed to reconstitute a "fleet worthy of past prestige": the task fell to Finmare the maritime finance company founded in 1936 supported with its own means the activities of the main shipping companies (including in which it had taken a majority shareholding The reconstitution of a modern fleet also passed through the refitting of ship fittings An important role was to be played byart: indeed the ships would accommodate works by the most celebrated masters of the time in order to create an "atmosphere of elegant worldliness," which was considered particularly suitable for the modern were considered an integral part of this project presents us with Spain as the first stop on the itinerary: a common feature of the entire cycle of the "Conte Grande" is to evoke the theme of each panel through characterizing elements presents in the center of the composition a bullfighter holding a capote the large cloth used to tire out the bull in one of the bullfighting stages (as distinct from the muleta which the matador holds in one hand and uses in the finale) The Mediterranean panel is distinguished by its warm hues and symbols that evoke the ancient cultures that flourished along its shores: in the center is a large sun illuminating the sea (also common to Spain and Brazil) illuminating a landscape in shades of blue and green: we see in the background the vast expanse of theocean surmounted by Sugarloaf Mountain and animals typical of Brazil: colorful parrots and ananaconda crawling through the vegetation These splendid ceramics are distinguished by their great plastic force typical of this phase of Lucio Fontana's production which at the time was in the midst of the path that would lead him toward the poetics of Spatialism that would characterize the last part of his career and represent its most revolutionary and original outcome (such as to guarantee him a prominent place in the history of art): forms that writhe in swirls that evokeBaroque aesthetics that acquire such vigor that the panels take on the character of sculptures (Fontana claimed to be a sculptor rather than a ceramist) and that with their contrasts between solids and voids somewhat anticipate the spatial concepts that Fontana began in that very same 1949 The great brilliance of the colors and their tendency to iridescence are due to the lustro technique with which Fontana finished the panels: the ceramic but at lower temperatures and with the addition of a special impasto so as to guarantee the work thus transformed iridescent effects that intend to imitate the effect of metals and precious stones the year in which the "Conte Grande" was sent for demolition almost all the furnishings were sold at auction by Finarte: some works remained in the warehouses of the Italia company Among the latter were the panels by Fontana after Cecilia Chilosi's report dating back to 1995 They were then sent to Faenza where they underwent restoration at the Laboratory of the International Museum of Ceramics at the exhibition that the city of Milan dedicated to the centenary of Lucio Fontana's birth they were destined for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Albissola Marina Temporarily exhibited at the Fornace Alba Docilia in 2010 at the time of the reorganization of the Ligurian town's civic museums at the MuDA exhibition center in Albissola Marina where they have found a worthy and prestigious collocation within a setting that succeeds in fully enhancing them: it is here that the public can now admire these four works witnesses to one of the most fervent seasons of our art history and an important stage in the artistic career of one of the great names of the twentieth century a scholarly tool such as a catalog raisonné normally is intend to learn about a perhaps lesser-known aspect of Baj’s production moreover: the texts are in Italian and English ceramics is not a linear element in the Milanese artist’s career: in fact tackled with passion and dedication at specific moments of his artistic life Bochicchio recalls three two-faced sculptures kept in the entrance of his own home mouths and noses also sculpted on the back of the head represent a polyhedral nature based on the complexity of the human being declared that the artist’s task is to leave a trace those two-faced Giani fully respond to Baj’s mission and statement They ideally link up with the footprints left by more distant ancestors In tracing the master’s ceramic years Bochicchio dwells on the chromaticity of the majolica made in Faenza by Baj what is attractive about the works is found in the crowd of faces that support them They are figures charged with human frailty Baj thus confronts themes such as contemporary society and uses ceramics as a tool for critique and reflection And certainly his ability to combine the grotesque with the sublime makes his ceramic corpus one of the most original demonstrations of twentieth-century art The artist thus had the ability to adapt his poetics to ceramic materials and techniques and his various experiments demonstrate this: his approach to terracotta in Albisola in the 1950s (it was here that Baj conducted his first experiments: these were mainly relief panels the majolica made in Faenza and Imola in the 1980s and 1990s after almost thirty years without touching the clay material (the artist said that he was first and foremost a painter and had for these reasons suspended his research on ceramics) and the final productions in Castellamonte “The approach to ceramics,” Baj would have said in the 1980s “has always been totally spontaneous for me in accordance with my sensibility and my way of making art I do and have always done material painting the insertion of objects and materials having their own weight and identity.” The volume thus simultaneously addresses two aspects: there is obviously a technical cataloguing of the works but also the placing of these works in a broader historical and cultural context All this highlights Baj’s dialogue with the great artistic movements of his time such as Surrealism It is precisely linked to the figure of Jarry in the second part of the twentieth century that the Milanese sculptor made numerous ceramics inspired by the play Ubu roi drawing on the pataphysical imagery of Alfred Jarry a French writer born in Laval in 1873 and known for having developed the science of imaginary solutions Among the artist’s works is an important work such as The Stories of Ubu made between 1983 and 1985 which not only represents Baj’s creative and experimental genius but above all becomes a tool for dealing with the difficulties of contemporary life The irony and absurdity that characterizes Ubu is transformed into a remedy to the rigidity of reality and presents imaginary solutions toward what are the darkest moments in everyone’s life Bochicchio does not fail to pay homage to the skill and experience of Faenza-based ceramists such as Davide Servadei whose skills (technical and physical) were instrumental in translating Baj’s visions into reality What then is the central theme of the catalog Definitely Baj’s relationship with Italian craft workshops considered the true centers of excellence where the artist found the basis for his experiments Not being a traditional ceramist or a specialized technician Baj always collaborated with master ceramists such as Servadei who in his case guided and assisted him in the realization of his visions Tied to the expertise toward the assembly and disassembly of the works are recalled by Bochicchio two particular moments related to the setting up of several installations The one in 2001 on the occasion of the retrospective on Baj at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome characterized by the instability of the installation of La Bella e la Bestia with the risk of the work’s collapse during the installation of I funerali dell’anarchico Pinelli in the Sala Napoleonica in Brera in which the setters climbed on a very high and unstable scaffold the delicacy and importance of the ceramics required meticulous work The volume, released at the end of 2024 on the occasion of a double anniversary (the 100th anniversary of Baj’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his first ceramics, made in Albisola in 1954), also delves into a not insignificant theme: the comparison between Baj and well-known ceramic masters, including Lucio Fontana Although both chose matter as their expressive medium used ceramics to flesh out the vision of his spatial concept Through works such as Concetto spaziale of 1954 he used ceramics in the same way as canvas and imprinted violent energy-laden gestures into the material to create a tension between control and chaos has interpreted ceramics in completely distinct ways through effects that express his playful nature and willingness to overturn the traditional rules of ceramics and constantly mocks the dramatic human condition Baj’s works are fragments of a poetics that combines play and depth And the Catalogue raisonné of ceramic works analyzes the eclectic and visionary dimension of an artist who struggled against the boundaries between art and craft The catalog is therefore aimed at scholars enthusiasts and the curious and presents a journey through ceramics as a metaphor for the life and thought of Enrico Baj Located on the beautiful Riviera Ligure di Ponente Savona is a port city that combines history The city is dominated by the majestic Priamar Fortress an imposing construction that offers panoramic views of the sea one can admire architectural gems such as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption and the Leon Pancaldo Tower cobblestone streets lead to picturesque squares.But Savona is not only history and art The city boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in Liguria with golden sand and crystal clear waters that invite relaxation and water sports Some have been awarded Blue Flag status for the quality of their waters lovers of good food will find a paradise of flavors in Savona The local gastronomic tradition includes delicious dishes such as farinata and the famous pesto alla Genovese (which is also eaten in Savona) Local markets and artisan stores offer typical products and fresh ingredients perfect for taking a piece of Savona home with you: above all which celebrates the ancient ceramic tradition of nearby Albissola Easily accessible Savona is also a great starting point for exploring other fascinating locations in Liguria Its strategic location and well-connected transportation network make it easy to get around and discover the region’s hidden treasures Here are 11 things to see and do in Savona Did you know that chinotto is Savona’s most distinctive food product a unique citrus fruit and Slow Food Presidium this fruit is handcrafted to create drinks Savona’s chinotto is processed using an artisanal method that traces a centuries-old tradition Because chinotto is not eaten in its natural state but must be processed into drinks There are several places where you can taste it in the form of a drink with a bitter aftertaste including the old Besio pastry shop in Piazza Mameli which has guarded the secrets of candying and processing chinotto since 1860 the bell at the War Memorial strikes 21 chimes Fun fact: It is the highest rated Savona attraction on TripAdvisor and Daniele Panucci in collaboration with Francesca Anfossi a solo exhibition by Tommaso Corvi Mora curated by Daniele Panucci with critical contributions by Irene Biolchini and Luca Bochicchio are the two exhibitions on view at the until Feb The two projects deepen the research that the Savona-based museum is conducting on the most recent developments in contemporary ceramic art in relation to the artisanal and productive fabric of Savona and the Albisole Following the success of Lam et Les Magiciens de la Mer the first Italian exhibition dedicated to the ceramic work of Cuban Wifredo Lam the Museo della Ceramica shifts the spotlight to London.The two exhibitions present the work of Anfossi and Corvi Mora-both Italian artists who have been active in the United Kingdom for decades-created as part of two separate residencies held in local workshops and laboratories investigating the different modes of expression with which the two artists explore the fabric of relationships and processes of sharing and experience At the heart of the project A tavola con Rochester Square (Francesca Anfossi Paulina Michnowska and Lex Franchi) curated by Alessio Cotena Marco Isaia and Daniele Panucci is the social and convivial vision of ceramic art that the London-based studio led by Francesca Anfossi (Genoa On the fourth and fifth floors and on the terrace of the Savona Ceramics Museum are the collective works designed by Rochester Square artists - Francesca Anfossi (IT) Paulina Michnowska (UK) and Lex Franchi (UK) - during a residency organized in late August by the Exhibitions and Educational Programs departments of the Savona museum Professional and nonprofessional ceramists brought the exhibition’s design to life with the support of local artisan workshops and creative centers the Municipal School of Ceramics of Albisola Superiore Casa Museo Jorn and the Ceramics Museum workshop On display are terracotta stools made by Rochester Square artists along with earthenware and straw pots inspired by museum collections decorated tableware and lathe-made containers dedicated to food fermentation The terrace houses large vases made from plaster casts in homage to the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus The main room is set up like a banquet: bread sculptures are installed on the walls and the works are displayed around a large table handmade by children during summer workshops which at the opening was transformed into a real table set for guests to enjoy art in all senses The top floor of the museum was repurposed as a workshop where for the duration of the exhibition the public could try their hand at making sculptures for the earth garden set up on the terrace and intended to transport the atmosphere of the Rochester Square nursery from London to the heart of Savona It has a more intimate character Diario di Tommaso Corvi Mora curated by Daniele Panucci with critical contributions by Irene Biolchini and Luca Bochicchio: a diffuse exhibition that is hosted by the Museum of Ceramics in Savona the Laundry in Albissola Marina - home of the Angelo Ruga Cultural Association The project originated in 2021 from an idea by Irene Biolchini and investigates the artist’s practice in his intimate and everyday universe through the expressive media of drawing with which Corvi Mora has been dealing since 2009 Diary presents works made during the residencies he had in the last two years within the Albisola-based manufactures Ceramiche San Giorgio and Studio Ernan Design ceramic slabs with explicit references to the artist’s experience some plates and a series of coat hangers-an object with a liminal position that welcomes and accommiates-a tribute to the work of Luciano Fabro and works dedicated to Albisola inspired by the graphics elaborated by Milton Glaser for the city of New York Flanking them is a series of weavings testifying to the genesis of the project Also enriching the exhibition are a number of photographs taken in 1988 that develop the artist’s reflections on everyday life time conceived as the raw material of the work current events and the relationship between the public and private spheres Several ceramics have also been “entrusted to the city,” left on the streets of Albissola Marina available to the public who can take them in and insert them into the flow of everyday life At Table with Rochester Square is a project of the Museum of Ceramics in Savona carried out in collaboration with Francesca Anfossi’s Rochester Square studio Diary is a project coordinated by the Angelo Ruga Association realized with contributions from the De Mari Foundation and the City of Albissola Marina in collaboration with the Museum of Ceramics Savona Savona Hours: Mondays 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays: 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m and 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.; Sundays 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m Tickets: full 5 euros; reduced 3 euros; free under 18 and people with disabilities Info: info@museodellaceramica.savona.it; +39 331 891 6650 museodellaceramica.savona.it "I am particularly happy about this collaboration," explains Francesca Anfossi "the first for me and Rochester Square with a museum institution to tell the artistic but also social value of ceramics inclusive material that can be humble and at the same time very sophisticated So versatile that it can create extraordinary sculptures and be used every day for the most common activities “I started working on this exhibition in January 2021 during the longest lockdown I have had in the UK,” explains Tommaso Corvi Mora “creating weavings on a small loom to be held on my lap The abstract motifs represented in these works are linked to intimate narratives and reflections stimulated by the repetition of the weaving gesture the connection of this practice with ceramics What they have in common is the simplicity the everydayness and the ”non-artistry“ of the final object.” this is not a work that elicits feelings of ecstatic contemplation was to some extent alien to Asger Jorn’s art a year after his arrival in Albissola Marina and thus at a time when he had already become quite familiar with the art of ceramics the Danish artist exhibited his most recent works in his native Copenhagen at the Kunstindustrimuseet the traditional and the masterful equate to the beautiful the remarkable and the singular must equate to the ugly but it is the boring.” Ugliness became an important stylistic feature of his achievements guilty of caging creativity and subjecting drives and feelings to the rigid control of reason the definition of “non-aesthetic art.” And also against the individualism ofabstract expressionism a particularly visionary painter like Giuseppe “Pinot” Gallizio (Alba Wrote Gallizio: We have created a new aesthetic theory through the consideration that the non-aesthetic is not the Ugly and the Repugnant creativity and singularity (also understood as the direct expression of the individual which is always manifested in the context of acollective experience) constitutes the foundational basis of Jorn’s artistic credo “Our goal,” the artist wrote in 1949 in his Speech to the Penguins one of the founding texts of the CoBrA group “is to free ourselves from the control of reason which has been and still is what the bourgeoisie has idealized in order to seize control of lives.” In such a context,irony a tool that pertains much more to the logic of the ugly than the beautiful becomes an indispensable aesthetic foundation no form can be capable of making itself the bearer of a single content: irony therefore becomes a means of probing meaning (but not of arriving at truth since truth is not unique and especially not stable) of stimulating a response from the audience of enacting the social critique that is a constant that permeates virtually all of his art gives a dimension of this aspect of Jornian research: a funny and awkward individual who takes on the appearance of a kind of elongated mask sits firmly anchored to his own chair one of Asger Jorn’s first ceramic creations during his time in Italy It should be noted that experimentation with ceramics played an important role in the art of Jorn who discovered it in Denmark but delved into it systematically during his Albissola years constituted for Jorn an important synthesis of popular artistic expression: always interested in spontaneous artistic manifestations far removed from the Academy the Danish artist also ended up amassing a sizeable collection of ceramics and objects made by local artisans Jorn often intervened in accordance with the poetics of détournement (the subversion of the meaning or aesthetic canons of a work or writing) that “flexible language of anti-ideology,” as Guy Debord called it that characterized the artistic practice of the Situationists Particularly significant in this regard is a 1959 painting known as Le canard inquiétant (“The Disturbing Duck”) along with other détournés paintings (there were twenty in all) in an exhibition at the Galerie Rive Gauche in Paris that bore the title Modifications Jorn had purchased twenty low-quality paintings and on each of them he had affixed his own modifications which involved subverting the meaning of the original work There were many levels of interpretation of this practice: two of them were suggested by Jorn himself who presented two texts in the exhibition catalog one aimed at the “general public,” and the other aimed at “connoisseurs.” The general public was provocatively urged to see “porquoi rejeter l’ancien / si on peut le moderniser / avec quelques traits de pinceau / Ça jette de l’actualité / sur votre vieille culture / et distingués / du même coup / Autant donner le coup de grâce / Vive la peinture” ("Why throw away past things / if it is possible to modernize them / with a few strokes of the brush / Be fashionable / and distinguish yourselves / at the same time As for the ”connoisseurs," on the other hand the invitation to them was to get out of the logic of the work of art as an end and to enter instead into that of the work of art as a means capable of creating a bond between the subject who creates the work (and when the latter does so for its own pure pleasure the attitude becomes irreconcilable with interest in the object) And it is on this link that détournement acts: “dévaloriser,” “de-valorizing,” to create new values has devoted a profound analysis to Modifications stands as a critique of institutions: far from expiring into a simple and banal iconoclasm the détournés paintings placed attention on anonymous works yet belonging to a traditional creativity that the Academy had marginalized but that for Jorn was more than worthy of attention as indeed Jorn himself implied in his two writings “to the general public” and “to the connoisseurs,” aimed to make the viewer a participatory subject insofar as the détourné painting provokes in him a reaction of empathy or hostility in accordance with the concept of “art” according to Jorn (“Kunst er agitation,” or “Art is agitation,” he had written in 1948) Again: go back to Le canard inquiétant a tranquil country landscape with a pond in which some swans swim and then modified with touches of color that make it an even more bizarre and alienating being there is also an attack on the cliché that wants to tie painting totechnical skill: Jorn’s duck remains in a state of perpetual unfinishedness full wholeness involves a separation from real experience the ironic dialogue between the relaxing pre-existing painting and the ugly duck (i.e. between two elements aesthetically at opposites) is meant to suggest to the viewer the vastness of forms of expression in a complex society Returning to Asger Jorn’s relationship with ceramics, it can be added that, at the time of the Danish artist’s arrival in Italy, ceramic art was experiencing a particularly fortunate season, since a large number of artists (beginning with Lucio Fontana and Leoncillo) had begun to explore its possibilities to consider it a field on which it was possible to conduct experimentation that moved in a different direction from that of sculpture as it had been practiced up to that time the interest in ceramics had arisen thanks to Lucio Fontana to his friend Tullio Mazzotti (whom Marinetti had nicknamed Tullio d’Albisola) a Futurist ceramist and owner of one of the historic factories in Albissola Marina and began to reflect on an art form that guaranteed great freedom and that in some ways annulled the distance between avant-garde art and kitsch art in a dialectical relationship that was long researched by Jorn himself one of the first contacts Jorn had at the time of his arrival in Italy and it is to be expected that some of the Danish artist’s work on ceramics would take its cue from Fontana’s experiments The two were also the promoters of one of the highest events in the history of twentieth-century Italian art which took place in Albissola in the summer of 1954 and was attended by many of the great artists of the time: in addition to Fontana and Jorn had a certain predisposition not to embody well-defined concepts but rather to leave the viewer with broad faculties of interpretation A work such as Tidlig vÃ¥r (“Beginning of Spring”) is as illustrative as ever: Jorn suggests a title but it is up to the observer to probe these figures Hans Kolstad wants to see in the composition a female bird spreading her wings to protect her young) Relief ceramics were much practiced by Jorn at this stage: “these reliefs,” writes Ursula Lehmann-Brockhaus “show that the artist did not simply transpose pictorial conceptions from canvas to clay rather that he immersed himself in the material and technique in order to make the most of the expressive and figurative possibilities contained therein He molded largilla with expressive gestures and let limmagine form plastically and He also knew how to include a linear component taking advantage of the need to dismember the firing slab into irregular pieces rather than a linear grid Jorn found a mode of expression very much suited to his artistic temperament.” Jorn never abandoned ceramics: at the Exhibition Center of the Albissola Diffuse Museum it is possible to observe a series of plates that belong to the extreme stages of his career Jorn did not stop experimenting: he tried his hand at complementary colors at the particular dripping that responds in an ironic and humorous way to that of Jackson Pollock (who is preceded by Jorn: the Danish artist’s first experiments with the dripping technique date back to 1938) it is interesting to note that that reappraisal of ugliness mentioned in the opening paragraph was also propelled by the International Ceramics Meeting: the works exhibited in 1955 in Copenhagen were all created on that occasion and it is there that the discourse on “ugliness” takes shape in a timely and systematic way But Asger Jorn also proposed something else: “the Albissola meeting was not a coincidence but a new step toward the construction of a new artistic principle a free artistic methodology that has the name Mouvement Internationale pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste turned against architectural rationalism and against empiricism.” Thus was born the movement of free artists that would form the basis of theSituationist International.