Two exhibitions in Savona chronicle developments in contemporary ceramics

At theTable with Rochester Square, a project curated by Alessio Cotena, Marco Isaia, and Daniele Panucci in collaboration with Francesca Anfossi, and Diario, 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. 26, 2024 at the Museum of Ceramics in Savona. 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, in fact, 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.

Francesca Anfossi: At Table with Rochester Square.

At the heart of the project A tavola con Rochester Square (Francesca Anfossi, Milan Tarascas, Ewelina Bartkowska, Lyson Marchessault, 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, 1980) summarizes in the claim Clay, Food, Garden. 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), Milan Tarascas (UK), Ewelina Bartkowska (PL), Lyson Marchessault (CA), Paulina Michnowska (UK) and Lex Franchi (UK) - during a residency organized in late August, in summer school format, by the Exhibitions and Educational Programs departments of the Savona museum.

Professional and nonprofessional ceramists, enrolled in the various workshops, brought the exhibition’s design to life, with the support of local artisan workshops and creative centers, such as Studio Ernan Design, Officina Novecento, 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.

Tommaso Corvi Mora: Diario

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 initiative’s leader -, Casa Museo Jorn and Fornace Alba Docilia, venues of MuDA - Museo Diffuso Albisola.

The project originated in 2021 from an idea by Irene Biolchini, Luca Bochicchio and Corvi Mora himself, and investigates the artist’s practice in his intimate and everyday universe through the expressive media of drawing, fabric and ceramics, 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.

The exhibition showcases, in the various venues, ceramic slabs with explicit references to the artist’s experience, daily life and manual skills, 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, memory, 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.

Info Museo della Ceramica Savona, Palazzo Monte di Pietà, Via Ambrogio Aonzo, 9, 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

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Photoica Delprino

Statements

"I am particularly happy about this collaboration," explains Francesca Anfossi, "the first for me and Rochester Square with a museum institution. It is exciting to return home, to Liguria, to tell the artistic but also social value of ceramics. An adaptable, inclusive material that can be humble and at the same time very sophisticated. So versatile that it can create extraordinary sculptures and, at the same time, be used every day for the most common activities, like eating together."

“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, memories, and reflections stimulated by the repetition of the weaving gesture. As time has passed, the connection of this practice with ceramics, central to my work, has become increasingly evident. What they have in common is the simplicity, the everydayness and the ”non-artistry“ of the final object.”

Two exhibitions in Savona chronicle developments in contemporary ceramics

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