Under the title Ceramics Between Time and Space, Gmunden will continue to live up to its reputation as a ceramics city in a contemporary way. Here, projects come together that are situated between art and craftsmanship, theory and practice, inspiration and innovation. This results in a sustainable Austrian competence center for ceramics that creates international relevance – from the Salzkammergut region!
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With its broad range of offerings, Gmunden will become a center for already established and future ceramic experts as well as for ceramics enthusiasts and observers from throughout Austria and abroad. With all of the planned initiatives, the goal is to awaken interest and incorporate both the inhabitants of the Salzkammergut region as well as artists and guests from around the world. This represents a commitment to focus on ceramics in an historical as well as contemporary context.
Local Heroes
Here 6 interdisciplinary ceramic projects are defined, which will be shown in public space in 2024.
Lebenshilfe Gmunden/ Art Forum
The current, unused concrete bench, centrally located in front of the citizens’ service point (future cultural department) was designed in ceramic form in a joint project entitled “Verbundenheit” (connectedness) by artists from Lebenshilfe Gmunden and artists from the Kunstforum Salzkammergut (Ferdinand Reisenbichler, Nadja Zettl and Silvia Vorwagner) and will thus become a communicative meeting point in the centre of Gmunden for young and old.
Skateboard scene Gmunden/ Pupils of the BEA Schloss Traunsee in collaboration with the artist Marie Gruber
Together with the artist Marie Gruber, pupils from BEA Schloss Traunsee designed the side parts of a mini skateboard ramp from ceramic elements and turned it into a navigable work of art.
Two artistic interventions for the exhibition, Klo und so
As part of the new staging of the Klo&So exhibition at the Museum Gmunden, two contemporary artists (Xenia Lesniewski and Gerhard Gutenberger) have been invited to engage with the exhibition at the K-Hof Museum in the field of tension between art and design. In terms of content and form, the artists respond to the theme and the circumstances. Sustainable handling and reuse of resources are important aspects in the realisation and conception. The resulting hybrid artworks are located at the interface between applied visual arts and design. The works will remain permanently in the Klo&so Museum and become part of the inventory. The new installation brings the Klo&So Museum up to date, innovative and nationally recognised as best practice.
Wall work by the local and internationally recognised ceramic artist Prof. Kurt Ohnsorg in the Gmunden Municipal Theatre.
The fifth artistic contribution to Local Heros brings together local ceramic artists who have made a significant contribution to positioning Gmunden as a sustainable ceramics town for the public to see and experience. A small-scale mural consisting of more than 150 elements is interpreted in a new and contemporary way and made accessible to the public in the municipal theatre.
theatre. (Due to the ongoing renovation work in the theatre, it has not yet been possible to
theatre; no payments have been made for this by KHS, but will be installed)
La Communication
Support and co-financing for the re-erection of Kim Simonssen’s sculpture on Gmunden’s Rathausplatz.
Application UNESCO Creative Cities Network
Gmunden, as one of the most important European centers for ceramic handicraft – already awarded as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO – as well as for internationally acclaimed ceramic art, looks back on a historically impressive past. The significance of ceramics for the city is also essential in the present, revived again and again by diverse impulses and endeavors. As part of the efforts to give this art, which characterizes Gmunden in such a special way, additional radiance beyond the borders and thus to mark and present the city with its historical and at the same time forward-looking ceramic heritage in a sustainable way, Gmunden is applying for inclusion in 2023 in the “UNESCO Creative Cities”.
International Academy of Ceramics
Another milestone will be the admission to the International Academy of Ceramics. The application process for this is currently underway. The positive effects of such memberships in a global context certainly represent an epoch-making milestone for the design and development of the city of Gmunden in every respect.
