The 6th UNICUM World Triennial of Ceramics was held in Slovenia, where Chinese ceramic artist Duan Yijian was shortlisted and won the Ilirika Acquisition Award. The work now sits permanently in the collection of the awarding institution.
The triennial gathers leading ceramic makers from dozens of countries. What earned attention here was not a revival of a historic form: the work carries ink-painting technique into porcelain, treating glaze the way a brush treats paper — wash, dry stroke, bleed.
That distinction is worth holding on to. Chinese ceramics spent a long stretch of the export market being valued as reproduction. Work being collected on its own terms, by institutions outside China, changes what the category can be sold as — and quietly raises the ceiling for everything made downstream of it.
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