Territories EXTRA#9 - Ceramique on Tour

The renewed interest of artists in ceramics has been growing in recent years, whether they make exclusive use of this technique or use it among other mediums. This use of the earth shows a desire not only to rub itself with a material with many plastic possibilities, but also to use a natural material, inscribed in a very long and rich history. Wishing to show and accompany this ceramic vivacity, the centres of contemporary art Passerelle in Brest and La Criée in Rennes join forces to propose Ceramic on Tour. Throughout the summer of 2025,  Céramique on Tour is available as creative residences at the Artbausa Space in Crozon, Finistère, and at the Aberystwyth Arts Center in Wales, as well as a travelling exhibition. The latter, for a day or a week, unfolds in about fifteen places throughout Brittany. Ceramic on Tour is the fruit of numerous and fertile collaborations, with invited artists as well as with partner venues.

Ceramique on Tour from 20 June to 28 September, there are about 15 structures of a wide variety of types and formats, spread over the four departments: places of formation, creation or artistic diffusion, libraries, centres of social action, third place, etc. In a desire to go to all audiences and to rub each other in different contexts, the two art centres have imagined an exhibition that can adapt to very different environments. Easily mountable and demountable, easily transportable, scenography, both practical, aesthetic and eco-conceived, was designed by the young Brestian designer Brendan Cornic. At each stage, Lucie Baumann, cultural mediator, offers mediation actions and adapted visitor tools. The exhibition brings together twelve artists who live and work in Brittany, seven women and five men, mostly born at the turn of the 1990s. All the pieces exhibited testify to the plurality of the ceramic practices of the visual artists today: from sculptures to re-visited utility objects, photography and video; works exploring naturalistic, geological or archaeological themes, or sound and human figure. With  Ceramique on Tour, the art centers Passerelle and La Criée come out of their walls to present the emerging scene throughout Brittany, to the closest to the inhabitants. They thus implement two complementary aspects of their role as actors in the territory: support for artistic emergence and the dissemination of contemporary creation to a broad audience.

In collaboration with the Espace Artbausa, a new place dedicated to ceramic creation in Crozon, three artists will be welcomed for a month for a research and creation residency during which they will be able to make new pieces, accompanied by the teams of art centres and Artbausa. This is Norah Cottencin, Emilien Adage, and Bonnie Grace.
In parallel, the artist Quentin Marais will be welcomed at the Aberystwyth art centre for a month, too, in October. The Welsh art centre has developed expertise in ceramics for many years and Quentin Marais will be able to compare its practice with a new and favorable context. Through these residences, the Passerelle and La Criée art centres implement their mission of supporting creation with a view to both supporting the local scene and exchanging with the Welsh artistic scene.