Exhibitions
Kim Simonsson
Moss People &
La Communication
19.04.-07.09.24
Opening: 18.04.24
16:00 Stadtplatz Gmunden
17:00 Gmundner Keramik
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
In the year of the European Capital of Culture 2024, the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden is showing special highlights. Kim Simonsson is an international artist who is giving new impulses to ceramic art.
The Finnish artist takes us into the fantastic world of the "Moss People" - life-sized, childlike creatures made of ceramic with a velvety surface, staged in a hyper-natural environment. The spectacular installation in the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur takes up the entire exhibition space and immerses us: 23 moss people observe a four-meter-tall, sleeping giant who has invaded their habitat. The "Moss People" live in a utopian future in which nature has reclaimed the world, and are equipped with finds from our present, then-defunct civilization. Inspired by the myths of his Nordic homeland Finland, but also by comics and manga, the artist, who works in the medium of ceramics, has covered his ceramic figures representing the "forest people" of Finland with a moss-like surface made of yellow flocking made of nylon fibers on a black background.
Kim Simonsson created the "Salt Collector" especially for the Salzkammergut, who, with leather trousers, hat, axe and found salt quarry stones, takes up themes from the region. The figures in the exhibition are each assigned to one of the 23 communities that have joined forces for the European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut 2024.
The large figure “La Communication” on the Rathausplatz represents the municipality of Gmunden, the salt collector surrounded by salt quarry stones from Salinen Austria AG represents Hallstatt, the “Enlightened Ruler” represents Bad Ischl, “Jacky” decorated all over with plants and flowers represents Grundlsee, a moss pirate represents Ebensee, a “Believer” represents Gosau and an alpinist represents Obertraun, etc.
La Communication
19.04.‒03.11.24, Rathausplatz Gmunden
In front of the silhouette of the Traunstein stands "La Communication", a boy communicating with his doppelgänger. The large figure with a xylophone on his back represents a creative person and artist in dialogue with his analytical, structuring side, symbolized by the small figure with the Lego brick.
The giant “La Communication” was produced in plastic, as part of a series of large-scale sculptures “Moss People” during UTOPIA edition, 2022, organized by lille3000.
The project is part of the Art in Public Space program of the municipality of Gmunden, an initiative of Mayor Stefan Krapf and Cultural Officer Andreas Hecht.
Kim Simonsson, *1974 in Helsinki, lives and works in Fiskars / FI, his works have been exhibited at important international art fairs and can be found in important collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum London and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki
23 x Salzkammergut on Display
12.01.-30.03.24
Opening: 16.01.24, 17:00
Gmundner Keramik
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
Clothing, work and kitchen utensils, dishes, furniture,grilles and gates - virtually every object of material folk culture is decorated in some way. This exhibition revolves around 23 museum pieces that are linked to the 23 municipalities of the Capital of Culture 2024 an which display ornaments or patterns. These varied patterns served as inspiration for the painters at Gmunden to design 23 unique plates. The resulting works illustrate the variety of decorative forms found in the Salzkammergut and bear witness to its rich culture, craftsmanship, and traditions. Patterns help us to localize our identity and demonstrate cultural affinity. At the same time, they are used for beautification. Whether lines, spirals, zigzags, stars, hearts, or tendrils - ornamental patterns are handed down and reinterpreted over the centuries and across regions. The are not set in stone, but are instead changeable art forms. The Gmunden painters impressively demonstrate here the fruitfulness of combining old patterns with new creative impulses, on plates whose basic form was designed by the ceramic artist Gudrun Wittke-Baudisch in the 1970s.
AoCG 2023
Artists in Residence
CHANGING FRAME
opening 08.08.23, 17:00
till 22.10.23
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
Gmundner Keramik and the OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH have launched a new generation of ceramic art with the formation of the AoCG in 2022. The focus is on cross-fertilization and exchange between one of the oldest sites for ceramics production in Europe and world-renowned contemporary artists. Exhibitions and events, as well as artist residencies, promote the transfer of artistic and craft expertise, carrying on the historical heritage of Gmundner Keramik.
AoCG
San Ceramics
Kalahari, Namibia & Botswana
till 22.10.23
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
The AoCG has launched an important project designed to support the San people of the Kalahari Desert. The endeavor simultaneously draws the attention of the outside world to the difficult life circumstances of these desert dwellers. Regular ceramics workshops provide a new livelihood for San people living in several frontier settlements in Donkerbos, Namibia, and D’Kar, Botswana. The artworks created in the Kalahari, along with works by painters at Gmundner Keramik inspired by this art, are available in the shop as editions.
In the course of several workshops held in the Kalahari, San artists created a series of plates as well as three-dimensional objects and paintings. Via the Gmundner Lodge in Namibia, the art of ceramics has thus been restored to the San. This unique Art Aid project provides both revenue for the San and a source of inspiration for the product line at Gmundner Keramik.
Fragile City/Крихке місто
Julia Beliaeva
till 22.10.23
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
With the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the multimedia artist fled her hometown of Kiev/Kyiv with her son. As artist in residence at the OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, she has created at Gmundner Keramik her most monumental work to date, “Fragile City,” which is now being shown at the place where it was created.
In the thirteenth century, tiled stoves began to proliferate in many households, and upper-class residences often boasted handsome examples with elaborate ornament. Ever since then, tiled stoves have stood for the cozy warmth of home. Julia Beliaeva uses the form of the tiled stove as a prototype for modernist architecture. She bases her designs on early twentieth-century utopias as they were once materialized in the uniform, omnipresent prefabricated buildings of the Soviet era. But her works convey at the same time the destruction and scars left by the Russian war on Ukraine.
“Fragile City” was created as a memorial to a war that is today being broadcast by the media in real time. The work tells of the existential suffering that has pervaded Ukraine for more than a year. Resembling a tiled stove, the ceramic object calls to mind the bombed-out, burnt-out houses in Kiev and environs.
Julia Beliaeva - Fragile City
29.03. - 21.05.23
Opening hours
Tue-Sun, Hol 10:00-18:00
Closed Mondays
OK Linz
Ok Platz 1
4020 Linz
Julia Beliaeva balances gracefully between virtuality, physicality and fragility. In her digitally generated sculptures and videos, she fuses past and present - especially of her hometown Kiev. In the animated video "Heroes of the City," for example, skaters appropriate the Soviet monument on Victory Square in the "hero city" of Kiev, and figures from the now-closed porcelain factory "Kyiv Ceramic" become models for her virtual sculptures, according to the concept "digital porcelain." With the Russian attack on Ukraine, Julia Beliaeva fled to Austria and became part of the residency program of the OÖLKG and the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden. In the course of her residency, she created the installation "Social Meditation" and her most monumental work to date, "Fragile City," at Gmunden Ceramics. The objects, which at first appear to be tiled stoves, are reminiscent of bombed-out, burned-out houses in Kiev and tell of war and flight in the figurative frieze.
The exhibition at OK Linz shows Julia Beliaeva's series of works "Fragile City" with two sculptures and a photo series in the context of selected, older works. A porcelain figure created in 2016 deals with the so-called "Holodomor," the great famine of the 1930s in Ukraine.
Winter exhibition
Academy of Ceramics Gmunden
09.11.22 - 31.03.23
Opening hours
Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Sa 10:00-16:00
Admission FREE
Gmundner Keramik manufactory
Keramikstraße 24
4810 Gmunden
The winter exhibition in the premises of Gmundner Keramik shows important works from the early days of the ceramics manufactory by Emilie Schleiss-Simandl and Michael Powolny as well as the greats of the "Group H" Gudrun Wittke-Baudisch and Franz Josef Altenburg. The exhibition will also feature the works created during the first Academy of Ceramics in the summer of 2022.
The pottery of the SAN -
Donkerbos, Namibia
In several workshops in the Kalahari, San artists from the Donkerbos and Drimiopsis settlements created a series of designs for artistic ceramics by Gmundner Keramik as well as elaborately produced unique pieces. It was the beginning of a cooperation that on the one hand provides the San with a livelihood and on the other hand takes the artistic programme of Gmunden Ceramics to another high point.
The owner of Gmunden Ceramics, Markus Friesacher, has a close connection to Namibia. He knows the history and fate of the San (a collective term for some indigenous ethnic groups in southern Africa) and actively supports them.
The high artistic skills of the artists in Donkerbos led to the idea of producing an AfricaCeramicsEdition in 2022. This is how a unique project came into being.
AoCG Artist in Residence
Exhibitions and events as well as working stays and residencies for artists at Gmundner Keramik promote the transfer of artistic and technical know-how. The Academy of Ceramics Gmunden (AoCG) is characterised by the exchange between employees, visitors and artists.
Six international artists work on site and present their works in the exhibition: Dominika Bednarsky, Linda Luse, Ben Orkin, Rosi Steinbach, Julia Beliaeva and Maria Kulikovska.
Gallery
Photos © Michael Maritsch