Wali Hawes 1952 - 2014
                          pottery and more!

Wali Hawes Potter's Diary

Namaste India 2006. II Encuentro Internacional de Ceramica a Nigran, Spain

From the 10th-16th July in the resort town of Nigran in the province of Pontevedra in the NW of Spain saw the celebration of the II Encuentro Internacional de Ceramica. Organized by Emilia Guimerans and Miguel Vazquez (Spain) and Priya Sen and myself (India) The  meeting was dedicated to India and as such saw the participation of the following artists and their respective diciplines. Daroz (Ceramics and Architecture), Anjani Khanna (Hybrid Realities and Paper Clay) Madhur Sen (Sculptural Form), Dadi Pudumjee (Contemporary Puppets) Suresh Waghmare (Bell Metal) and Naveen Kumar (Tabla). Guest Artist was Panaliappan who built and fired a Votive Aiyanar Horse. The meeting was organized into hands on workshops with fifteen people per workshop. It was held at The Instituto Social de La Marina. Panaliappan worked at the Nigran Ceramic School. It was a fantastic experience giving many people the chance to get really close to the multiple realities that comprise Contemporary India Today. The Ceramic artists demonstrated the growing confidence and versatility of contemporary clay in India within a  multifaceted nature of India. Panaliappan brought with him the milenaria tradition that is the Aiyanar Horse. Suresh Wagmare straddles the divide with his beautiful sculptures wrought in bronze and brass (no pun intended!) and Naven Kumar showed how the long and arduos training needed to play the tabla can be adapted to Wetern tastes despite lack of time and full understanding of what comprises Classical Tabla. Dadi Pudumjee showed us the great diversity of the Art of the Puppeteer in India drawing from various traditional styles and influences but going beyond with a conceptual leap that was demonstrated at a performance on the last night.  Together with the hands on workshop an exhibition of work was on display as well. A great event and thanks to the organizers, The Municipal Corporation of Nigran, Fundacion Casa Asia, The India Centre for Cultural Relations and related institutions. Putting on an event of this nature is no small task. Many hurdles have to be surmounted and especially seeing that we are dealing with India. The visa problems showed us that we are not treated equally but can be discriminated against by laws and regulations. Pity because it marred what would have beena perfect event.

09/08/2006

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