Benedetta Tagliabue's feminist and Juyolian botijo

BarcelonaA whole world in a water jug. The designer of this year's Argentona water jug ​​is architect Benedetta Tagliabue, and she has incorporated a host of references, from her own family to a tribute to working women and caregivers. The water jug ​​features a string of details that recall the delicacy of the ceilings of Josep Maria Jujol's La Pedrera, filled with mottos and symbols, and the bottle that the same architect designed for the former Casa de Familia in Barcelona. I'm also reminded of the architect Enric Miralles, who was her husband and partner at the head of the EMBT studio. Domènech says. As for the recognition of the women who carry water in vases and water jugs, it is found in the shape of the water jug ​​itself, the result of abstracting a photograph of a woman with a jug on her head. Tagliabue says. "With this water jug, I wanted to remember the world of women and the carrying of water, which was an incredible job," Marquina says.

The public presentation of Benedetta Tagliabue's botijo ​​will take place from this Friday to Sunday during the new edition of the Argillà International Ceramics Festival, which year after year makes Argentona one of the European ceramics capitals. "The demand to participate in the fair is really high, and we have had to be very selective," says festival director Oriol Calvo. "We will have ceramists from France, Italy, Germany, Moldova, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, and the guest country, Morocco." For Calvo, Moroccan ceramics are very special and he highlights its two major styles: hand-molded Berber ceramics, and "the more Islamic style," with geometric figures and more glazed.

The festival program

Regarding the festival program, the usual "ceramic showcases," pottery and raku workshops, and the Cinerámica film screening will continue. Three exhibitions will also be on display, two of them on ceramics and a third on ceramic photography. Threshold, a review of the career of Emili Biarnés (Barcelona, ​​​​1956), known in the sector for his investigative drive. His works are often hybrid objects that incorporate parts of other materials, such as glass and iron, titled. Inhabit the form, Jan Madrenas has taken over the gardens of Casa Puig y Cadafalch this weekend with its large-format ceramics. The exhibition will accompany its construction from a perspective of fragility, resilience, and transformation. Fire and time leave their mark, turning each piece into a living record of its own evolution.

The ceramic photography exhibition will be Clay skin, by Ramon Forns, and will be on display in the Salón de Piedra. It will include around twenty images dated between 2020 and 2023 with which Forns invites viewers to reflect on their relationship with their own bodies. On the one hand, Forns talks about the modeling process as a process in which they can hide their imperfections, and on the other, about clay as a therapeutic substance used to nourish and revitalize the skin, as well as to eliminate toxins.

In parallel to the exhibitions, the program will include two shows. The first is Barros, by clown Toti Toronell and cellist Cinta Pellicer, this Friday night at Can Doro. Toronell defines the show as a "visual and sound experience," during which he transforms and deforms the ceramics being made by turners in real time to turn them into "stories."

Also at Can Doro, the young company of Dans Invitro will premiere the show on SaturdayRustic, A tribute to the rural world in which "three women work, celebrate, and interact with elements that transport us to the beauty of the environment and the small things, silence and contemplation, contemplation and celebration."