TONTONTON

What importance, status or value does clay have in the world of contemporary art? Students from the Institute of Art and Design at the Vienna University of Technology set about tackling this question. The results, which emerged from the Artistic Project X seminar held in the Research Department for Three-Dimensional Design and Model Making, were collated and are exhibited in this book. Photographs of the objects have been curated and placed as exhibits in the physical space of the book. Sketches, drawings, video stills, and textual fragments detailing the various work processes coalesce to create a composite whole. Essays by a number of authors interlace the exhibition in the form of short accompanying events: Opening the exhibition is Christian Kern with insight into the institute’s research department, Rainald Franz embarks on an historic journey in his role as guest curator of ceramics, artist Fridolin Welte elucidates the methodologies and processes involved in ceramics production and also guides us through the exhibition, Katie Cuddon tells us about her yearslong work in clay in the shape of an alphabet, and Peter G. Auer takes a philosophical approach to the subject, tying it to other artistic practices. Interwoven with the students’ textual fragments resulting from their various approaches and processes, theory and practice encounter one another and communicate in their inherently antithetical commonality.