The 21st Angelina Alós Esplugues Ceramics Biennial awards ceremony took place on Thursday, 5 October at the Robert Brillas Cultural Centre in Esplugues de Llobregat.
The ceremony was emceed by Maribel Aguilera, Cabinet Officer for Cultural Heritage and Democratic Memory, and attended by the competition jury and members of the sponsoring companies.
The three official prizes were presented during the ceremony and for the first time the name of the winner of the Public Prize was also announced.
Winners of the 21st Angelina Alós Esplugues Ceramics Biennial:
Ciutat d’Esplugues Award
Surface morphed
Javier Perandones
For its originality, fragility, elegance and the complexity of its technique.
The artist says the main idea behind his piece comes from observing sensitive and small details which occur naturally in nature. Formally, its construction is based on systematic repetition of the parts in order to generate a piece of great technical complexity.
Javier Perandones
Angelina Alòs Award
Elements
Magdolna Toth
The jury noted how her piece revisits the traditional two-dimensional ceramic panel to fashion a three-dimensional item which is extremely difficult to produce.
Magdolna Toth says her piece symbolises the network systems which link our lives and environment. Building it is a meditative and time-consuming activity. It teaches focus and endurance but also humility and patience.
Magdola Toth
Pujol i Bausis Award
Silent spring III
Ludovica Silvestri
For its technical virtuosity, sensitivity and delicacy in the result.
The artist describes her piece as a delicate and fragile sculpture, immortalised in its formation and representing living beings, organic forms in movement, like the imperceptible growth of a plant organism.
Ludovica Silvestri
Honorary mention
Vessel Autumn
Mandy Cheng
For the precision and execution of the technique and the quality of the aesthetic outcome
Public Prize
Traces: a serie of tactile memory
Selma Catovic
More information about the
21 Esplugues Angelina Alós ceramics biennial
The 21st Esplugues ceramics competition stood out for a significant rise in entries as a record 289 pieces were submitted. Entries from abroad were also up and accounted for 67% of the total ahead of ones from Spain.
From the almost 300 entries received, the competition jury selected the 30 finalists now on display in the 21st Esplugues Ceramics Biennial: winning and shortlisted entries temporary exhibition which can be visited free of charge until 14 January 2024 at Can Tinturé Museum.
Contemporary ceramics is growing and gaining recognition. The exhibition, which has already been visited by almost 800 people in two months, is an example of the richness, complexity and diversity of this booming art.
The exhibition seeks to bring the artists’ creativity to the fore rather than simply looking at the piece itself. So the works are accompanied in the rooms by video presentations of the pieces by the artists themselves along with full information on the features of each piece
The artists’ comments make it possible to identify core themes in the pieces.
Firstly, the artists’ need for something of a return to nature or to the value of what nature brings us is evident. There are thoughts on the relationship between humans and nature in pieces such as ‘Edificio organico’, ‘Aquos II’ and ‘Escape to Nature’.
Secondly, there are pieces which unmistakably explore the pressure society exerts on people and how they react. They include ‘Silencio Theatral’, ‘Asimetria VII’ and ‘Elements’.
Finally, in some pieces feminism and the struggle of women for equality in different cultures take centre stage such as ‘Our God is Great #21’ and ‘Aorta Ao Antikatabolista’.
You can watch the ceramists’ videos here:
The jury made up of leading experts on ceramics and art in general shortlisted the finalist pieces and chose the four winners.
The jury for this edition consisted of Isabel Fernández del Moral, an art historian and curator of the Ceramics Collection at the Barcelona Design Museum; Manel Diestre Marín, a board member at the Association of Ceramists of Catalonia, a founder partner of the SOT Ceramics Studio and a master craftsman who has taken part in numerous architectural heritage interventions, and Mònica Ramona Navarro, co-director of the Artur Ramon Art gallery, an expert in modern and contemporary art and chair of the Art Galleries Association of Catalonia.
Isabel Fernández del Moral,
Manel Diestre Marín.
Mònica Ramona Navarro
The Angelina Alós Esplugues Ceramics Biennial is the oldest ceramics creation competition in Catalonia. It was set up by the Town Council in 1986 and continues to support contemporary ceramics to this day. It is also backed by its three sponsoring companies without which the Biennial would not be possible: Nestlé Spain, Soler i Saure and Fiact Assegurances-Clínica Diagonal.
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