The categories of applied arts were for a long time determined by the materials worked by the artists – connecting numerous creative communities to this day – the knowledge of which makesartistic execution possible. Without the knowledge of working the materials artistic execution is virtually impossible. It is primarily the ceramic-, glass-, metal-, and textile arts that are most closely linked to the materials used. The inner rules specific to the given material engage the artist in a continuous dialogue, out of which the work of art comes into being. The oldest such dialogue that ever existed between the material and the artist marks the very beginning of human civilisation: when people took ceramics in their hands. After taming fire the working and shaping of the Earth immediatelyformed the basis of human civilisation, so, among other reasons, we assigned this category to ceramics before all others because the roots of not only ‘applied arts’ but all forms of human creativity can be traced back to moulding clay.
András Szilágyi B.
curator of the exhibition