Benedetta Pompili and Shahar Livne selected for residency Arita

Benedetta Pompili and Shahar Livne have been selected for a residency in ceramics region Arita. The Creative Industries Fund NL and the Mondriaan Fund received 21 applications for this residency in response to the Open Call Residency Arita, Japan 2023/24.

selection

As a conceptual materials designer, Shahar Livne often works within different disciplines, with an emphasis on exploring the stories that materials bring with them from various perspectives. The designer wants to use the residency to discover the rich history of the green-shadow glaze ‘celadon’ in the context of Arita. As a result of her residency and the project Green Shadow (Japanse Celadon), Livne aims to create a series of porcelain objects that tell the story from the past to the future. She will take her place in Arita in autumn 2023.

In her practice, Benedetta Pompili focuses on social design. The designer strives to minimize the ecological impact of her work. The core of her project Once-Fired Blue is to experiment with the single-fire technique, which makes it possible to obtain a ceramic artefact in just one round of firing instead of two or three. By working in Japan, Pompili hopes to expand her knowledge and apply her design perspective to porcelain. Her residency will take place in winter 2024.

Benedetta Pompili, Once-Fired Blue

assessment

The proposals submitted were assessed on the basis of portfolio, CV and motivation. The advisers from the Fund were Victoria Anastasyadis and Edwin van der Heide. From the Mondriaan Fund, Emiel van der Pol and Maria Roosen, chaired by Robert Jan Verhage, advised on the applications.

The advisers assessed the proposals to gauge how consistently they were conceived and the extent to which they met the criteria of this open call and the Open Call Grant Scheme. The assessment took the form of a tender: two proposals were preferred to the other submissions.

about the residency

In July 2022, the Creative Industries Fund NL, together with the Mondriaan Fund, issued the sixth Open Call Residency Arita 2023/2024. Arita offers a living and working space for two work periods per year, where one designer and one artist can stay at the same time. The aim is to create a valuable exchange between Japanese porcelain producers and Dutch designers and artists.