„Phillipe Godderidge´s work appears to stem far back in the time of the beginning of our human existence. He has flattened straw and clay into sheets, in the way the early crop growers used to make their clay tiles. He has then sanded two of these slabs and, fired them with the help of an improvised kiln. We find ourselves standing before these fired slabs like archaeologists before the remains of an ancient fire, which have left darkened rings in the buried layers. The circles of fire, the first home of man in a still unknown wilderness.
His floor installation of footprints made from pressed and fired clay mixed with tiles, also suggests a metaphoric bridge into the earlier ages of mankind. One is inevitably reminded of the famous discovery by the palaeontologist Mary Leakey in 1978 in the Tanzanian Olduvai region, near Laetoli, of footprints left by two upright walking pre-human’s fossilised in the volcanic ash.” *

Petra Töppe-Zenker - Germany - www.petra-toeppe-zenker.de

Born 1967 in Merseburg , 2 years teaching training (art / german) in Erfurt, ceramics training with apprenticeship, work experience in Weimar, Study travels incl. Petra /Jordan. Lives and works as ceramicist in Kapellendorf, membership incl. of VBK Thüringen, Symposien, numeropus solo exhibitions in Germany (i.e. Erfurt/ „Haus zum Güldenen Krönbacken“, Frankfurt a. M./ Galerie im Blauen Haus ), Awards (i.e. : Bürgeler Keramikpreis 2004), Work in public Institutes (i.e. Naumburger Dom, Handwerkskammer Erfurt, Imaginata Jena).

„We also receive a glimpse from the present into our origins in the work from Petra Töppe-Zenker. Many of her pots, which are not “thrown” on the wheel, but worked from inside out by pressing and moulding the material into its hollow form, are reminiscent of the Neolithic, i.e. band ceramic which where typical in central Europe. Following a visit to the archaeological city of Petra in Jordan, Töppe-Zenker is inspired by the small round huts, in which the human body squeezes into as into the uterus. In a similar way she has layered blocks of clay in an architectural way around the curved back of a colleague, who had positioned herself in an embryonic form on the floor. A large, red ceramic form, which lies on the floor like a fallen vase, is reminiscent of the Omphalos of the ancient Greeks in Delphi, the “navel of the world”, which other cultures, such as Buddhism recognise: the middle point, origins, home, first nutrition – here in the “navel of the world “ an inseparable, naïve unity of understanding, can still be formed. Petra Töppe –Zenker deliberately uses her free ceramic work as a possibility to remind one of the distant past, to visualize the roots of our origins. One can place home very deeply.” *

Ruth Shomroni - Israel

Born 1937 in Tel Aviv/ Israel , parents had emmigrated from germany four years earlier. since 1962 works in clay, self taught, training incl. at the Avni and Bat–Yam Academy, member of the Ceramic Artists Association of Israel and in the World Crafts Council Europe, lives and works in Ramat–Hasharon/ Israel, Exhibitions in Israel (i.e Schagal Museum/ Haifa, Periscope Gallery for Design/Tel Aviv) and Germany (i.e. Droysen Gallery/ Berlin, Museum Papiermanufaktur Homburg) and Awards (2. Place artistic competition of the Rothschild Fonds 2001).

„Still further go back many forms, as in the ones we find in the work of Ruth Schomronin from Israel. She takes her inspiration form the fossilised remnants of life in the primeval oceans, which are now found in the deserts of the near east. Life meant creation, creativity – at least this is what we assume of the frugal regions of deserts. The fact that we find these signs of pre historic sea-life there shows us that nothing stays as it is. In change lies the chance of life.” *

“The cuboid wire baskets show the colours of Israel: the green – melted green bottles- the valleys of Jordan and the red to black of the desert. Out of some baskets rise points like arrows – a sign for the locked up Israel, but also a sign for the hope, that an impulse can radiate from here.” **

Margret Weise - Germany

Born 1941 in Naumburg , where she still lives and works today, 1961-65 ceramics training with Master qualification, since 1972 member of the VBK, numerous solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, Awards (i.e. 1. Prize XXX. International Competition „Pro Tadino/ Italien) and Working grants (i.e. Künstlerhaus Edenkoben), Sales through numerous museums and collections (i.e. Keramik-Museum Berlin, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg/ Halle, Grassimuseum Leipzig, Keramion-Museum Frechen).

„In Margret Weise (from Naumburg)’s work one finds quotes of the past, which are constantly ironically broken. So appear her graphically modelled heads, which lean in style towards the terracotta warriors of Xi’an, placed on a map of the Thüringia-Sachen-Anhalt borders like a surprise invasion: Help, the Chinese are coming! With the wink of an eye she brings the long-time stranger directly into her studio, calmly manipulates it and playfully incorporates it into her own design intentions.” *

Merwat Essa - Palestine - www.mervat-essa.com

Born 1970 in the Christian-Palestinian village Gush Halav / Israel, where she lives and works again since 1997. 1991-94 ceramic studies at the Art School Tel-Hai and since 2001 Arts studies at the Oranim College in Kiryat Tevon. Since 1996 Arts Lecturer at Sackhnin College and since 2001 Art teacher in Peqiin. Numerous solo (i.e. Al-Markez Gallery Nazareth) and group exhibitions (i.e. Artcar Museum/ Station, Huston/ USA) and 2003-2004 Award from the American-Israeli Arts Foundation.

„The humorously ironic gesture of Margret Weise unexpectedly meets an opponent in the work from the Palestinian, Mervat Essa. She has used the relief prints of headscarves in clay as a subject in her work for a long time. They are the scarves that the Islamic women wear to cover their faces for celebrations or ceremonies. The intense patterns of creases she used to model onto reliefs of faces in her earlier work, she exhibits today simply as scarves. Clean and neatly folded in a pile they appear to be waiting for the right occasion to be worn. Crumpled, they suggest collective ritual. Mervat Essa works her own family history into the objects which itself is a history of exile from her homeland.” *

Danijela Piculjan - Croatia - www.kerameikon.com

Born 1967 in Zagreb, since 1997 studies at Blaženka Šoic Štebih and from 2000 to 2005 Workshops at Gustav Weiss ' studios (Germany). Member of the « Croatian Crafts Society » and in the « Association of independant Artisits», Vicepresident of the Croatian Ceramic Association «Keramikon» and Organisor of the International Festival of Postmodern Ceramic in Zaraždin/Croatia 2002 und 2005. Participation in numerous selected exhibitions in Croatia, Greece (1st European Ceramic Competition Amorusion) and China, Various Awards.

„The very recent history of exile and war in her homeland has also inspired the Croatian
Danijela Piculjan to spontaneously create a collage of illustrative photographs and clay forms. A work has developed which through the delicate ceramic construction questions the fragility of forms from nature such as sea and snail shells. The results are complex three-dimensional objects that allow us a glimpse into the normally hidden and highly fragile interior. This undertone of vulnerability, highlighted by the theme of the symposium, is translated in a direct illustration of the sorrow and hope of mankind.” *

“The white mountains of Croatia are spread at the foot of three ceramic objects. Or are they the waves on the Dalmatian coast? Danijela Piculjan saw this scene in a dream, one hot summer night in Kappellendorf. Was it homesickness?“ **

Radenko Adnadj - Serbia

Born 1960 in Tenja, Croatia, describes himself as Ceramic-painter, lives and works in Belgrad/ Serbien, Member of ULUS ( Serbian Society of Sculptural Art) and ULUPUDS (Serbian Society of Crafts and Design), since 1988 Solo and Group exhibitions (i.e. Second International Trienal of Ceramics “CUP 2000” Belgrad), Awards (i.e. 1. Ceramic prize of the „4. Bienale for Crafts, Smederevo“) and Sales vai Crafts Museums Belgrad and the Gallery for Modern Art, Subotica.

„Radenko Adnadj from Serbia uses the ceramic surfaces as an alternative to canvas: he paints on it. He aims to see his gestural expressions captured in the treatment of the glaze. Like a graphically structured undercoat the Raku technique prepares the painting surface. In this way the objects offer not only a fascinating graphical and painted-like surface. They also relate a fracture, are structured like vases, but in fragments, captured before they are completed. This tension between the painted like attraction of the surface and the fractured pieces of the sculpted design lend the work a saddening undertone.” **


* Prof. Dr. Kai Uwe Schierz, Director of the Kunsthalle Erfurt
** Antje Soléau, Specialist journalist for Crafts

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