Post-irony of handmade

2024, Vzbudme Vary Association, Thun Manufactory

An audiovisual research on the state of porcelain production in the Karlovy Vary region was developed as part of the Esence místa residency. It poses questions about the memory of the hands and workers in this industry. Specific speakers / porcelain plates amplify the author’s mix of recorded interviews with employees and the industrial ambience of the factory. The quiet, the sublime and the delicate are sounded out by a gritty worker’s imaginary.
The work was created in collaboration with Thun 1794 manufactory and the Vzbudme Vary association.

The area of Karlovy Vary is rich in the tradition of artisanal history in the field of ceramics and glass, but with the dissapearance of many porcelain manufactiories in Carlsbad region, the specialisation in which there were masters of the craft has therefore disappeared. I was interested in exploring and imagining the porcelain industry, where the porcelain body is its shared space. By attaching a few piezo sensors to it, we can amplify the manufacture and the social relations around it. Porcelain is a material that demands precise and delicate work of many hands, which has been industrialized and mechanised to perfection from Austria-Hungary to the present day. Nevertheless, we need to enlightened the worker routine in automatised factory, the skill of repetiton, ability to become a machine extension and the memory of thousands apparently same moments. How do people relate to this machinism? How can you express your worklife in milions moments of deja-vu? How much has the mining of materials taken from nature and what is the sum of their debts?