The Icheon Ceramic Festival has opened its fortieth edition under the name "A Feast of Clay and Fire." It is a festival held in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, a place where the wheel and the kiln have long been both a livelihood and a lineage. This year the event, which has run for 40 years, said it would lay out the memory of traditional ceramics and the future of contemporary craft together in one arena.
The festival's name takes the making process just as it is. Clay is cool in the hand, holding its moisture, and leaves a raw earthen smell on the fingertips. Fire takes that moisture away, hardens the form and turns the glaze to glass. Until the kiln cools, not even the maker is certain of the color that will settle on the vessel.
The hands that stand in the arena are not of one kind. There are the hands of potters who have turned the wheel for generations, and the hands of young makers who treat ceramics as a language of form and as design for daily life. Two hands that touch the same clay while living in different times stand in the same arena.
A span of 40 years is easily spent as no more than a reason to celebrate. That span is also the time one region has held on to the same material without letting go. When a single kiln goes out, that kiln's feel for temperature and its glaze recipes disappear with it. A workshop closing its doors is the same as one strand of technique quietly being cut off.
So a festival like this has a hard time being an entirely comfortable event. Push ceramics forward as a tourism product and it slides toward cheap souvenirs, insist on preservation alone and buyers dwindle until the fire goes out in the end. What Icheon has held on to for 40 years has been the work of keeping a balance between the two demands. The festival is an arena where that balance is tested again each year.
If you are planning to visit the festival, it is best to check the organizers' notices on the dates, admission fees and whether reservations are required before setting out. Ceramics are heavy and break easily. If you consider the chance of meeting a vessel you like, it is safer to bring padding material and a roomy bag.
A kiln cools slowly over several days. The vessels that endured those days are now out in the arena. The sense of a piece being heavier or lighter than expected when you pick it up, the rough touch of the foot ring, do not carry over to a screen. If you need a reason to travel all the way to Icheon, that one touch is enough.
Event information
Event: Icheon Ceramic Festival 40th anniversary, "A Feast of Clay and Fire"
Venue: Icheon, Gyeonggi Province
Dates: Now open, check the organizers' notices for detailed dates
Fees and reservations: Check confirmed notices
