The 2023 Terralha European Ceramic Festival, in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie

As every year, the Festival will take place in the streets, workshops and gardens of participating residents, private places opened especially for the event, a perfect match between work of the ceramists and places.

TERRALHA, a rich programme

-From Friday 14 to 16 July, from 9 am to 8 pm, the Terralha route will take visitors through the 20 exhibition sites, an exhibition-competition of young European ceramics, 17 artists to discover in the Joseph Monier room and over a temporary exhibition Les cœurs sauvages (until 2 August), at the Terra Viva Gallery.

-a Temporary exhibition Et l'arche de Noé fit escale à Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie at the Musée de la Poterie Méditerranéenne (until 29 October).

-a Demonstration on how to sculpt of a large piece by Marie Donois Steib, in courtyard Nathalie Hubert, rue de la fontaine.

-Ceradel stand, Les Grès d'Uzès, where to receive advice and buy ceramic products, place du monument aux morts (2 rue du 4 septembre)

-Meeting point from 10 am to 7 pm in the courtyard of the Maison de la terre, at the museum's ephemeral bookshop.

-Friday 14 July from 5.30 pm to 7 pm, demonstration of image transfer on ceramics with Maria Geszler at the Earth workshop, (2 rue du 4 septembre). Inauguration of the Festival with the prize-giving ceremony for the Young European Ceramics competition, Place de la liberté (the works can be admired until August 15th).

-Saturday 15 July from 10 am to 12 pm and from 3 pm to 5 pm, Introduction to pottery, on the theme of children's snacks at the Atelier Terre. From 8.30 pm, DJ set with DJ Long Bass on the Place de la Liberté. Good to know: refreshments and food on site.

Exhibitions, young European ceramics competition and artists to discover

The temple of Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, an important stage in the ceramic journey, has become a major showroom for the Festival, especially for the second edition of its CARTE BLANCHE, offered this year to Laurent Dufour.

Childhood, a recurring theme among the artists

A young generation of dynamic artists is now working on a playful ceramic in both material and colour, which fits in perfectly with the programme aimed at young people, in order to accompany children and parents in "an exploration of the artistic journey exhibited on the theme of the fantastic bestiary at the Musée de la Poterie Méditerranéenne thanks to a booklet-game and participative pottery workshops on the theme of the "child's afternoon snack".

Presentation of the French artists

François Bauer: "Drawing and ceramics are mixed in the work of the artist, who graduated from the European Institute of Ceramic Arts in Guebwiller in 2017. His sculptural pieces, which he describes as total improvision, make reference to architectural models or to some unbridled ancient temples and are also underlined on their edges"...

Chiara Bonato: "Chiara Bonato's sculptures, inhabited by a softness linked to their colour and the gentle curves of their forms, have sober volumes... Her works can also be articulated and create a space in which the gaze circulates"...

Katy Bourbotte, "when porcelain offers an aerial dimension to her production, by highlighting its fineness and translucence... The wall sometimes comes alive with a pastel-coloured veil, a cloud of tinted porcelain evaporating into the white porcelain"...

Mélanie Broglio "models large female figures whose imposing and sometimes theatrical presence is reminiscent of Western religious statuary...The raw black and white earthenware clearly expresses the expressiveness of the faces"...

Maëlle Caborderie: "Her sculptures are a pronounced taste for the clay itself and its richness revealed by the glazing and especially by the firing, whether it is gas or, better still, wood (anagama firing)"...

Marie Donois Steib: "With her large, almost totemic pieces, the artist, who was trained at the Arts-décoratifs de Strasbourg, allows the form to emerge through the hand and the whole body"...

Laurent Dufour, the guest artist, "draws mysterious characters before bringing them to life in his large-scale sculptures which question our relationship with others and with ourselves"... He defines his universe as follows: "I create an enigmatic coming and going, diagrams, maps opening onto shifting perimeters, intimate maps of codes and paths leading to a dialogue between the past and the present, between what has been and what I perceive"...

Sarah Gatin, who recently moved to the Gard region of France, "collects the raw materials she uses for her decorations in the nature. Combined with glazes, those materials tell a story. Here, the block of feldstpath placed on the celadon enamelled cup becomes a handle, but also a rock placed in the stream, whose celadon evokes fluidity".

Gaëlle Guingant-Convert: "Through the spontaneous dimension of the movements as well as the textural effects sought, the sculptures claim a form of realism: the careful enamels restore the lumpy skin of the toad while the fur of the hares is evoked by means of imprints in the stoneware"...

Arnault Le Calvé: "Glass blower who passed through the CIRVA in Marseille, Arnaud Le Calve has been self-taught in ceramics for the last ten years. In his latest series, which he calls "Les gardiens", curious figures from elsewhere scrutinise our world".

Leïla Helmstetter, "who, from her African childhood in arid landscapes, has kept the wonder of the richness of France's vegetation, the profusion of plants and colours discovered then. Inspired by this variety of forms in nature, she now cultivates her "world-garden" where the hybridization of species generates a strangeness that is not disquieting but attractive"...

Léa Renard, "a young artist trained in Dieulefit, she practices a playful and colourful ceramic inspired by the living. Through flowing forms, games on the quality of surfaces, she plays fully with the possibilities offered by the material clay and the coverings"...

Audrey Schaditzki: "the emerging artist opened her workshop in Montreuil 5 years ago... Sometimes, the ceramist adds material that colonises the surface like coral, suggesting a long process at work, like that of the marine world"...

Dominique Stutz, "is back at Terralha after seven years of pursuing her research into new forms and new glazes. Dominique plunges us once again into the heart of the infinitely small, into the heart of the matrix. Moving, as if animated within them by a life force that only asks to blossom, her works catch the eye first of all by the variety and vivacity of the colours of her enamels"...

The Franco-Spanish artist Andréa Moreno, "greedy and playful, her ceramics have their roots in the childhood of the young artist who grew up in Venezuela. Her imagination is nourished by her fascinated observation of the streets of Caracas, its buildings, but also of the resourcefulness of its inhabitants, who repair their houses with what they can"...

The Franco-Korean Kee Tea Rha, "has been living in France for a long time now and has studied at the Beaux-Arts and the IEAC in Guebwiller: as a cook, he boldly manipulates clay in all its states and forms. As a cook, he daringly manipulates clay in all its forms and states. True installations, his proposals combine different materials such as metal or sand with a great formal rigour which places him on the side of contemporary art"...

Presentation of the Foreign artists

The Hungarian ceramist Maria Geszler Garzuly, "whose work and long career have already been rewarded in France in 2019 with the Grand Prix ex-aequo de Vallauris. She transfers her landscape photographs onto porcelain volumes, achieving a finesse in her cobalt blue decorations. The branches then grow on the white blocks as if on rock or on a snowy background"...

The Portuguese artist Guilherme Ferias "Driven by the desire to make pieces that are both artistic and utilitarian, he seeks beauty in imperfection, inspired by the Japanese aesthetic concept of Wabi-Sabi. His containers drip with glazes that crack and fissure".

Magdalena Maros, "a young Polish ceramist, offers us an installation combining clay and sound recording. Seeking to create an interaction with her audience, the artist, who is also trained as a teacher, draws from her knowledge a vast source of inspiration for her plastic work. For Terralha, delicately hemmed earthen pieces hang at ear level and whisper a multitude of stories about friendship"...

and finally, the German artist Christiane Wilhelm, "whose work is exhibited throughout Europe, has long found her way into a body of work with sober, taut forms served by simple, refined surface work. A contemporary echo to Far Eastern jars, she now offers us generous turned amphorae, sometimes crowned with a round lid that accentuates their softness"...

Good to know: If last year the Festival attracted more than 1,500 visitors in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, it is expecting even more visitors this year.

All the programme, the exhibition locations, on the Festival website.

To know more: The programme of the Festival was presented to the press at the Maison de la région de Nîmes on Friday 28 April by Régine Pésenti, deputy for culture of Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, Morgan Conte, coordinator of the association Office Culturel de Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, Maud Grillet, director of the Terra Viva gallery and member of the festival's organising committee, Pascale François, ceramist based in Nîmes and member of the festival's organising committee and Safia Hijos, ceramist based in Nîmes and member of the festival's organising committee.