Bottega in Bloom: ICG Gallery London becomes an artistic workshop
Iris Ceramica Group takes part in the Clerkenwell Design Week with its ICG Gallery and with its very own space in The Old Sessions House. For the occasion, the Company presents “Bottega in Bloom”, an original format of events and workshops reflecting on circularity and the role of art in transforming and giving new meaning to waste materials.
Artistic traditions, craftsmanship and innovation inspire the workshops and installations “Bottega in Bloom”: ICG Gallery London becomes an artistic workshop experimenting the transformation and decoration of materials.
The events and workshops organised for the Clerkenwell Design Week pay homage to the Iris Ceramica collection “Bottega d’Arte” – a brand of Iris Ceramica Group – red body surfaces with a hand-crafted flavour, an authentic haute couture of ceramics. The Terracotta surfaces are created exploring traditional production techniques and manual skills to shed new light on handmade beauty.
Guests are invited to become craftsmen of the ‘bottega’, playing with colours, real flowers, ceramic production waste and other materials to create circular artistic installations bringing life to a collective work of art in the ICG Gallery even after the Clerkenwell Design Week.
WAXING ATELIER
The London-based contemporary artist Lola Lely guides visitors to the ICG Gallery through an experiential workshop in which flowers become the medium for experimenting the concept of “suspension in time”. The unexpected end result, the flower crystallised in wax, becomes a gift instilled with new meaning.
With her artistic background, Lola uses flowers recovered from London markets to allow each participant to create “new” floral elements with their very own colours and shapes, using the “wax immersion” technique.
As the artist explains, natural wax offers high-potential narrative and expressive abilities. A product derived from honey and other plants offering infinite circular uses with its versatility and tactile qualities becomes the ideal medium for creating a metaphor with ceramic materials.
HACKED SURFACES
Once again, circularity and the infinite possibilities for reusing materials are the central focus of this workshop in which ceramic production wastes are reinterpreted to create an artistic installation in progress.
On the first floor of the ICG Gallery London, guests reinterpret production wastes using the “terrazzo”, “ikebana” and “repair” techniques to create a collective work on show at the Gallery for the whole Clerkenwell Design Week.
THE OLD SESSIONS HOUSE, Room 4
At the same time, in the heart of Clerkenwell, in room 4 of The Old Sessions House, Iris Ceramica Group tells its story by reinterpreting the “Bottega in Bloom” concept: the values and artistic potential of traditional craft workshops are celebrated through the bright colours and tactile qualities of the “Bottega d’Arte” collection.
Creating an evocative, immersive setting typical of the traditional craft workshop, the ancient ceramic glazing process is reinterpreted in a new key: different floral elements will be immersed in wax to create an artistic installation made of overlapping shapes and tactile qualities.
