16. July 2008.

Every third year the MINO International Ceramics Festival and Competition is held in Tajimi City, the centre of greatest tradition of Japanese ceramics culture in the southern region of the Gifu Prefecture.

One of the highest ranking triennials in the world is held in the MINO Ceramics Park, in an extremely imposing building assembly of special architectonics built particularly for displaying contemporary ceramic art. This year they received 2000 applications for competition from more than 50 countries and regions. The international jury selected 200 entries for the exhibition.

Ákos Tamás, porcelain designer and applied artist of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory, at this time received the Special Prize in the ceramic design category for his artwork entitled “CUT”. Ákos Tamás created his snow white porcelain collection with the express intent of creating a new style matching up to the word famous and classic Herend style, that would draw the attention of the younger generation, at the same time representing the original and novel application of the most ancient artisan tradition of Herend, the technique of reticulation.

On the smooth transparent porcelain vases, matte and shiny surfaces alternate while reticulation – parts are incised when the porcelain is still in its raw stage and are shaped by hand – retains the “intelligence of the hand”. This brings a special and unique decoration to the artwork. The message of this personal design is immediacy, and it encourages appreciation of the traditions of the porcelain design in a mechanized 21st century.

Pálma Babos, the Artistic Director of the Manufactory, won an "Honorable Mention" award in the “Ceramic Art” category.
Her sculpture, entitled Tower, is made of glazed porcelain and is hand built (size: 25 x 32 x 60 cm).

Because something that has an effect, exists…

The artist envisaged a busy metropolitan scene and through this vision developed a fantasy image of the future. A massive amount of monotonous, tiny elements make up the tower and the multitude of towers make up the metropolis. The light, airy, and apparent chance construction of the work is coupled with an austere internal structure of the pieces.

The artist built the metropolis from snow-white porcelain, the surface richness of which is playfully highlighted by the alternation of light and shade. The geometric design was altered through the process of baking at 1380 °C, which instigates a natural softening of the material.

The exhibition of the 8th International Ceramics Festival is open in MINO Ceramics Park from August 1 to September 30.

Related persons

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• Ákos Tamás
• Pálma Babos