Sympasympo: New book launched at the Sutnar Faculty

Conference Cooperation Students

Last year, the Ceramic Design Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art hosted the third edition of the Sympasympo ceramic symposium, which regularly brings together students of ceramic design from all over the Czechia. A publication has now been created based on the symposium.

The first year of the Sympasympo student ceramic symposium was held with the support of the Ceramic Design Studio at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, the second edition took place at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Since the Ceramic Design Studio at the Sutnar Faculty focuses mainly on porcelain, the theme of the third edition was "Patience brings porcelain".

The works created during the symposium were exhibited at the GAFA Gallery located in the DEPO2015 Creative Zone at the turn of the year. The title of the exhibition, Breaking Point, alluded to the fragility of the material used, the chilling stubbornness of the current generation devoted to this material, and the shift away from function as the central point in the relationship between ceramic artefacts and human beings.

A publication has been produced based on the symposium and the exhibition, serving both as a summary of the current edition and as an overview of the development of this traveling symposium. The book hybridizes the genres of catalog and zine in terms of both content and graphic design.

Alongside a brief comparative essay on ceramic symposia in the Czech and Slovak Republics, structured like a scientific article, a substantial portion of the publication features interviews with participants of the Pilsen edition and the co-founder of the symposium. In these interviews, participants discuss the topics such as their own work, the current state of the local ceramic community, the future trajectory of the symposium, and the collective tendencies of artistic strategies.

The publication's primary contribution to the understanding of current tendencies in ceramic creation lies in the revelation of the proximity of artists of the same generation, based on a non-binary perception of the functionality of the ceramic artefact.

The publication was initiated by Juliana Kimličková, Kateřina Kopecká and Veronika Zálešáková, the organisers of the symposium and at that time students of the Ceramic Design Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art. The concept was designed and the content edited by Kryštof Hejný, external lecturer in the history of ceramics, and the publication was designed by Dayana Grigoryan, a Ph.D. student. The Pilsen edition of the symposium was photographed by Dorota Franková.

The book was officially launched on Wednesday, 21 February 2024, at the Incubator Gallery located in the Sutnar Faculty building. The event was photographed by Denis Matsuev.

Gallery


Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art

Martin Bečan

18. 03. 2024