JEAN GIREL
Return to the sources, Song Ceramics
3 September 2015 - 18 October 2015
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As part of the 14th Parcours céramique carougeois, the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, has the pleasure of welcoming Jean Girel, an internationally renowned French potter and Maître d’Art.
The works on show represent a distillation of thirty years of research and experiments and are inspired by Chinese ceramic ware of the Song dynasty (960-1279). In terms of both blend of clays and glazing, they were manufactured in the Chinese manner, meaning that the raw materials (rocks, clay and ash) were collected in the immediate vicinity. They were then fired under a naked flame or placed into saggars in an ecological wood-burning kiln designed and built by the artist for this exhibition. Specially created for our museum, the exhibition was intended as a tribute to Chinese ceramic art and the five elements of which it consists. Jean Girel’s unique approach to clay and enamels compares the Baur Foundation’s emblematic pieces with his new creations.
Each ancient work is matched with a number of small pieces made by Jean Girel, accompanied by explanatory notes on the origins of each glaze. In the same way, all the rooms of the exhibition, as well as some of the museum, include new works by the artist linked to Song ceramics. Jean Girel has managed to transform materials and forms so as to translate into clay the fascination he feels for the pottery of the Far East.
A Cahier du Contemporain, written by Pascale Nobécourt, accompanies the exhibition.
Guided tour of the exhibition with Jean Girel:
Tuesday 22 September at 3.30 pm
Conference by Jean Girel (prior booking required):
The secrets of Song ceramics Tuesday 22 September at 6.30 pm
Standard guided tour of the exhibition:
Wednesday 7 October at 6.30 pm
Museum open until 8.00 pm
Exhibition curator: Monique Crick
Exhibition design: Nicole Gérard