publications

Tontouristen Kollektiv’s work Mine is mine and Deposit were part of the special exhibition Homo Ceramicus at the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (GMoCCA) in Icheon, South Korea. “Homo Ceramicus” was an event that illuminated the very existence of ceramist. It regards the ceramist not as one who shapes ceramics as a mere outcome, but as a facilitator who instills body, the sensory world, philosophy, and everyday life into clay. Along the exhibition a catalogue was published.

Tontouristen, an artist collective of three female ceramists, explores the hidden dimensions of the ceramic medium’s naturalness and materiality while continually reflecting on the industrial structures surrounding clay and the relationship between humanity and nature. Their artworks, Deposit and Mine is mine, are video pieces filmed in the clay quarries of Germany’s Westerwald region, serving as inquiries into human intervention and natural restoration within industrial landscapes. Deposit consists of three video works documenting visits to clay extraction sites. Theseworks reveal the process by which clay is extracted from the quarry, sorted, dried, packaged, and shipped, while suggesting that high-quality claay resources may face depletion within the next 300 to 500 yeaars, and that rising energy costs and stricter regulations could further imperil the working conditions of ceramists. Mine is mine is aa performance-based video staged in a clay quarry and set against the premise that “clay is no longer produced, nor can vessels be made from it.” This framework reveals the ceramist as an ambiguous presence, caught between intruder and part of nature.