Resonating Ceramics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Resonating Ceramics

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Resonating ceramics, an innovation project in the context of higher art education

A project led by:
– École nationale supérieure des arts visuels, La Cambre, Brussels
– École nationale supérieure d’art, Villa Arson, Nice
– Haute école d’art et de design (HEAD), Geneva
– École supérieure d’arts plastiques de la Ville de Monaco, Pavillon Bosio, Monaco (associated partner)
– EKWC: Sundaymorning@ekwc, Tilburg (artist-in-residence centre and centre of excellence for the development of art, design and architecture through ceramics)

Ceramics is currently enjoying a surge of renewed popularity among many artists and designers in Europe and around the world. Our schools are facing a significant demand from students to work on projects in this field. The competences of each partner school are very specific and renowned throughout Europe, but are also limited (available space, various firing techniques available, skills present in each team). By associating art and design schools with a research and art production centre, an infrastructure that masters technical know-how, we are aiming for excellence.
The general objective of the project is to develop the skills of the participating students and the pedagogical expertise of the partner organizations in the field of art ceramics, in particular in a formal and aesthetic research dynamic that brings into play the material intimately linked to ceramics with other technical, formal or conceptual parameters.
We thus wish to propose an original offer of multiple and complementary skills, linked together in a network, for the direct benefit of our master’s students (a mixed and constant group of 20 students following the whole laboratory) and for the indirect benefit of the continuing education of the artists teachers associated with the project.

The project team has chosen to explore the relationship between ceramic material and sound experimentation, while linking this subject to a concern based on the notion of ritual (in the social and anthropological sense). Indeed, materials and sound make it possible to combine a wide variety of multiples in the field, which increases the experimental potential of the project. The notion of ritual anchors formal experimentation in a concrete context, with a more utilitarian purpose or a more aesthetic and symbolic dimension. It also brings together local and vernacular traditions that we wish to mix and associate in order to bring about a global European project.

The project is designed as a pedagogical laboratory of research-creation in four cumulative stages: documentation, formal experimentation, reflective and speculative experimentation, consolidation and analysis of the process. These four productive stages will be followed by a moment of international dissemination.
The general objective of these different research and realization times is to set up a work methodology that promotes innovation in the development of the creative process and its documentation. During these different activities, in addition to the interest of setting up innovative pedagogical tools, we will address contextualization in the fields of art, design, acoustics and sound design.

The first expected result of the project is the concrete operational confirmation of the research and pedagogical work protocol that we wish to apply.
The second expected result is the production of innovative results on the conceptual and formal level, within the scope of the chosen theme (contemporary ceramics and sound experimentation through ritual).
The third expected result is the direct development of (reflective, technical, and artistic) skills in the participating students, and the consolidation of the personal and professional experience (continuing education) of the accompanying teachers.
The fourth expected result is a reflective and critical consolidation of the work process and its results, gathered in a publication that has both a retrospective and prospective purpose.

The programme of activities follows a defined schedule:
– initial seminar and preparatory documentation: conferences and meetings (October 2020: La Cambre, Brussels);
– formal experiments: two workshops (March and April 2021: EKWC, Netherlands);
– speculative experimentation: a comparative and critical restitution (September/October 2021: Centre d’art, Villa Arson, Nice);
– research documentation and publication (October 2021-February 2022: all the involved partners);
– a concluding exhibition of the work and presentation of the publication (September 2022: HEAD, Geneva).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 190959 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ecole nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre & Country: BE

Project Partners

• EPA VILLA ARSON
• Stichting Europees Keramisch Werkcentrum/ European Ceramic Work Centre
• HAUTE ECOLE SPECIALISEE DE SUISSE OCCIDENTALE
• Le Pavillon Bosio, Art & Scénographie, École Supérieure d’Arts Plastiques de la Ville de Monaco