WILFRIED GERSTEL
Unicum Grand Prix 2012

The work appears dramatically in the space before the viewer, who first sees a board of perforated tiles made from black clay, which allow the light to shine through. He quickly deduces that the small holes compose into letters, and the letters into words, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Human dignity shall be inviolable”, written in several languages. Before us we have an artwork with a clear political message, delivered by the author in a subversive manner, since he has shot at the tiles with a gun instead of modelling them, by which the classical process of working in clay has been replaced by aggressive action. The accompanying traces of the process of artistic creation, the fired bullets, are resting in a shallow container under the board. With Gerstel’s work, the element of action literally enters into the process of artistic creation, mobilizing the traditional material, clay, in a new way.

HUMAN DIGNITY IS INVIOLABLE,
clay, metal, 206 ×142 × 42 cm

HATORI MAKOTO
Unicum Award 2012

In his work, the artist touches the elements that belong to the very core of ceramic art. He does this in a most sovereign manner, given his superior understanding of tradition as well as innovation, as he transposes traditional methods into modern times. His in-depth attention is given particularly to traditional Japanese firing techniques, which are a special feature of Japanese ceramics. He has used anagamo in the award-winning work, a complicated procedure of reductive firing carried out over eight days. He has created an object of simplicity that preserves the memory of the form of a useful object, a vase, yet it is masterfully transformed into a work of art with in-depth understanding of the process of making a creative piece.

SIDE FIRED JAR AND BOTTLE,
wheelthrowen, stoneware, natural glaze, reduction 8-day firing, 18,5 × 38 × 16,5 cm

KYLE MILNE
Unicum Honorary Award 2012

The artist has produced an installation, which provides a brilliant demonstration of the contemporary trends in sculpture. He has used bricks – an everyday and banal object – to make it, which have been connected with clamps, adding cardboard boxes and a video projection. In such a way, he created a model of a town, which composes and decomposes at the same time, is at once futuristic and cataclysmic. But more than anything, it shows the city, the scene of global cultures, as the space of the unceasing processes of transformation.

EVERYTHING IS NOT IN ITS RIGHT PLACE,
clay brick, video loop, projector, light, fan, clamps, cardboard, sculpture, constructed, found objects, 90 × 250 × 100 cm

NATAŠA SEDEJ

NATAŠA SEDEJ receives the Unicum Award 2012 for her original combining of materials – wire mesh with clay tiles – which she uses to explore the idea of how to define sculptural space by utilizing three-dimensional drawing built up from lines and points.

SHE TRAVELS ASTRAL, white clay, wire, handbuilt, mixed technique, 28 ×165 × 40

INES KOVAČIČ receives the Unicum Award 2012 for her piece, which in its elementary appearance opens up new viewpoints on ceramics, whereby precise control of the creative process is combined with a sensitivity of approach.

FOOTSTOOL,
clay, stoneware,
10 × 45 × 30 cm

BRAD EVAN TAYLOR

BRAD EVAN TAYLOR receives the Unicum Award 2012 for his work, which is perfect in its simplicity and reflects a personal approach in its use of ceramic methods, since the modelling and use of colour is controlled by the artist in an extremely subtle way.

SMALL MASSES PAIRED,
porcelain, handbuilt,
15 × 35 × 15