Until September 5, 2010
Faenza –Italy

A small exhibition, with little advertising, if any. It’s held in a city where the evolution of pottery has taken the direction of Art, leaving to other Italian towns the role of keeping traditional artistic ceramics alive. It’s featured in a Museum which has not been championing women so far.

All the artists presenting their works are women making their pottery in Faenza. Today.

Without pretending to be a comprehensive overview on contemporary art, this little exhibition is very special, indeed, because for the first time women are in the center stage.

As a matter of fact, they have always played an important role in the history of pottery in Italy, but they’ve been often hidden behind their husbands, employers and fathers or mentioned for their aesthetical taste and decorative skills only.

I had a wonderful time visiting the exhibition. Some of the artists I knew already. They are established ceramicists with a finely shaped personality: Mirta Morigi, Antonella Cimatti, Elisabetta Bovina, Antonella Ravagli. Some other artists were new to me, this having nothing to do with their actual fame!

It’s a pleasure for me to mention them all, paying them the tribute they deserve: Elisabetta Bovina, Lidia Carlini, Silvia Carnevale Miino, Miii, Antonella Cimatti, Giovanna Compagnoni, Cristina D’Alberto, Monika Grycko, Ana Cecilia Hillar, Andri Ioannou, Elvira Keller, Carla Lega, Mirta Morigi, Miho Okai, Martha Pachon Rodriguez, Antonella Ravagli, Marta Servadei, Laura Silvagni, Susanna Vassura, Ivana and Saura Vignoli.

Faenza is in a leading position to contribute to the emancipation of Ceramics from the role of a minor(ish) form of Art that it has been assigned by short sighted critics. I do hope the city, and more in particular the International Museum of Ceramics (MIC), will also fight to give equal visibility to both men and women artists. This is definitely a first, timid step in that direction.

Let’s cheer for the initiative of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza then.

And please, if you’re around, GO VISIT this beautiful exhibition and LEAVE A FEEDBACK here or at the MIC.

Ceramica – Storia di Donne
Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche
Viale Baccarini n°19
Faenza
Phone: 0039 0546 697311
Email: info@micfaenza.org