Ceramics second edition

Retracing Earth
by Maria Kasimati Tsoutsia


Creatures of Truth

It was late in the afternoon, in a hotel bar, when Eleftheria Tseliou and I began discussing the second part of the CERAMICS exhibition - this time in the new permanent space of The Great Design Disaster, on Via della Moscova in Milan. She began showing me, with palpable fervor, images of the works she had already assembled. The conversation - as always - slipped fluidly from one piece to another, from one thematic constellation to the next, moving through intersections of tradition and contemporary design, from Yannis Tsarouchis to emergent artistic practices, touching upon a strange temporality where “before” and “after” could no longer be clearly distinguished. 

As I left our meeting, I found myself haunted by a thought. Perhaps ceramics, after all, embodies in a particularly immediate way what the philosopher Martin Heidegger called the “unconcealment of truth”. This association did not arise arbitrarily, since I had been almost obsessively reading The Origin of the Work of Art these days. Art, in this sense, does not merely represent truth, it sets truth into work - it brings it forth as aletheia, as an event of disclosure, a lifting of concealment. For a moment, I found myself increasingly convinced that the ceramic work of art might be the privileged site where this revelation can occur - this interruption of forgetting - allowing us to see ourselves and our world in their truth.

In the meetings that followed, we began to envision these precious ceramics inhabiting the shelves of the old wooden library and the whitewashed walls of what was once a legendary antique shop - forming a paradoxical gathering of “creatures” from different eras, gestures, and sensibilities. Not a linear historical narrative, but a coexistence, an assembly, a simultaneity of presence.


Earth, Water, Hand and Fire

Why is it, that ceramic practice re-emerged with such urgency in the contemporary moment? Perhaps because it responds to a deeper need to redefine our relationship with materiality, dwelling, and the living world. Each form has undergone an elemental, almost primordial ritual - earth, water, hand, fire - and emerges from it with a strange autonomy, as though it has “stabilized” a moment of transformation. In this sense, the works presented at The Great Design Disaster become “ensouled matter,” bearing traces of experience and metamorphosis. These works express a profound reconnection with the Earth - with raw material, with touch - attuning us to cosmic forces, while simultaneously revealing the hidden essence of things. It is not only the forms themselves, but also the shaping of the void - the space between shapes and volumes - that actively participates in this process.


Return to the Remembering Body

Eleftheria Tseliou and her “gang” arrived in Milan and, together with the visionary Joy Herro, orchestrated a bold convergence of forces, transforming the gallery into an “active” time capsule. Clay forms from the 17th century to the present coexist within a constellation that seems to suspend time - not seeking reconciliation, but coexistence within difference.

The possibility of seeing, within the same space, Leila Babirye in dialogue with George Hadjimichalis and Pablo Picasso; Marisa Merz alongside Vassilis Zografos and Jean Cocteau; elsewhere, Rinus Van de Velde intersecting with David Sampethai, Ana Botezatu, and Vassilis Gerodimos, already establishes a field of unexpected encounters. At the same time, Brian Rochefort, Maria Efstathiou, Antonakis, and Dionysis Kavallieratos are positioned in near confrontation with Rena Papaspyrou, Ron Nagle, and Vanessa Anastasopoulou, intensifying this dynamic coexistence. Meanwhile, contemporary Greek artists, such as Panagiotis Koulouras, Ilias Koen, Atalanti Martinou, Marianna Papageorgiou, Natalia Tsoukala, Theodora Chorafa, and Rhea Khalo, together with authentic traditional ceramics from around the world, open possibilities for rare and highly edifying readings.

The exhibition seems to impose its own rhythm. One need only approach and observe the works as attentively as possible, suspending, if only momentarily, the impulse to interpret. Depending on the light, surfaces unfold as complex, unstable terrains, micro landscapes in a state of continual transformation. Every trace of the hand, every minute disturbance, every subtle chromatic variation emerges with heightened acuity, revealing something different each time. The objects themselves draw you in, almost hypnotic, inviting you to feel that all these “creatures” surrounding you- however simple they may appear- are imbued with latent energies and transformations.

Perhaps, then, the “unconcealment of truth” in ceramic practice is not, after all, a momentary clarity, but a process of restoration - a return to that which has been obscured, forgotten, or repressed. And through this process, these ceramic works do not simply offer knowledge about the world, they re-position us within it, as bodies that remember, touch, and participate.


Ceramics Second Edition
16 April - 29 May 2026


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Photography by Luigi Fiano & Ardesia Coco


Installation by Stratos Katsikogiannis
with the help of  David Sampethai & Vassilis Gerodimos