Biennial aims to bring ceramics to the people
Lucerne is hosting a "Ceramics Biennial", featuring exhibitions throughout the city - not all of them in museums and galleries.
“Our aim is the participation of people not normally associated with this branch of the arts and crafts,” says one of the organisers, Brigitte Steinemann-Reis. “We are delighted that shopkeepers in Lucerne as well as cultural centres are providing space for ceramics.”
The focal point of the biennial is an exhibition in the Löwengraben cultural centre, which features work by Switzerland’s leading contemporary ceramists. Organised by the Swiss Ceramics Association, the event seeks to draw the public’s attention to a branch of the applied arts that its practitioners believe is often neglected.
A special feature of this year’s event is an exhibition by British artists, four of whom will be giving workshops in the art school in Lucerne. One of them, Anna Noël, told swissinfo that the ceramics scene in Britain is currently booming thanks to efforts by the British Crafts Council to support it throughout the country rather than in London.
“Evening classes are becoming increasingly popular,” she said, “so it isn’t only art students who are learning about ceramics.”
The biennial ends August 13.
by Richard Dawson
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