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The DNA Ceramics project, finalist in the National Craft Awards
The DNA Ceramics project, directed by the potter Ana Illueca and implemented thanks to the support of the Valencian Institute for Business Competitiveness (IVACE), has received recognition of its worth with the nomination as finalist in the National Craft Awards, which seek to enhance the value of this important sector and reward innovation.
DNA Ceramics was conceived with a view to strengthening the reputation and prestige of Mediterranean design through one its great historical legacies: ceramics. Knowledge that has been held in our region for centuries and which, even today, is still firmly rooted in craft techniques, generating a differential value that is identified all along the Mediterranean coast thanks to the significance of its design.
The project uses new technologies and creativity to make a map and to locate the professional craftsmen and women who, thanks to their work with ceramics, contribute to increasing the value of design with throughout the Valencian region.
DNA Ceramics has managed to create a community around ceramics since the project includes all the players in the process: from schools to professionals and museums. Compiling and showing all the information relating to today’s ceramics in the Valencian Community, it demonstrates the differential value contributed by this craft technique with ideals such as precision, refined aesthetic sense, sustainability and mastery.
They designed and produced a sign which they then sent to all the ceramists and potters on the map so that their workshops could be identified by any passer-by, thus reinforcing the idea of a strong ceramic community which they always seek with all their actions.
The team behind the project, led by Ana Illueca, describes its aims as follows: “The everyday nature and proximity of the ceramics industry in the Valencian Community has led people to stop being aware of its worth. But it tells so many stories that we feel obliged to protect them, to give them value. And we can only achieve this with professionals such as those that form part of our map, those who have helped create a large and strong community, a community with its own identity and language which has travelled beyond our borders.”
After mapping and giving visibility to the agents of the ceramics sector via the generation and broadcasting of contents, DNA ceramics has published a report on the ceramics sector prepared by the Research Area for Cultural Economics and Tourism (Econcult), which defines the profile of the ceramists and potters with studios in the Valencian Community in 2021 (Download report DNA ceramics)
Currently, the DNA Ceramics project is working on the creation of documentary videos and the generation of innovative collisions between contemporary ceramics artists and industry. Creative collisions that will result in innovative products thanks to design applied in collaboration with ceramics companies throughout Valencia and the rest of the Mediterranean coast.
In a region where the ceramics industry is the second most important in the world, these synergies will generate new forms of interrelationship that will reinforce the presence of the sector, and the international appreciation of Valencian craftsmanship throughout the world.