There are not many materials that accompany human culture and creativity since the earliest beginnings untill nowadays. One of them is certainly ceramics in its widest view – it is present in all time periods and in all cultures on our planet if there only were conditions for acquiring and cultivation.

Some experts divide ceramics to different fields which are reciprocaly connected throught material, tehnicaly and in ways of handling, burning, glazing, etc,…With its expressional language, simple tehnical handling and accessibility to many artistic creators, clay represents one of the materials or media for mediation artistic messages, preparing sketches and outlines or finally shaped artworks. Throught this material many artists manage to create characteristic works of art, because it enables something other materials don't.

Today fields of folk pottery, artistic ceramics and serial production are connecting and supplementing. Expert opinions about quality and borders of these fields are divided and lets allow experts to define them and time that set up everything will estimate them.

First of all we are interested in field of artistic ceramics which is paving its place in slovenian artistic space. On the initiative of Dragica Čadež we started preparations for International trienale of artistic ceramics UNICUM 09. Artists working in this creative field have experience that became stimulation for a group of members of Section for ceramics to begin with preparations for trienale exhibition which would acquaint artistic public and other audience with achievements in this field in our country and abroad.

With this manifestation we would like to stimulate preparators of educational programs on artistic schools to include the field of artistic ceramics as a sunk study for students that this media suit them at their creative work and would like to express themselfs throught it. Shaping of ceramics is becoming more and more a part of contemporary art.

The president of ZDSLU
Peter Vernik