THE KI PROJECT
CASALGRANDE PADANA FOR ARTS
Introduction of
The KI PROJECT
CREATIVE CENTRE - 29th September 2008
The relationship between art and industry has been known and exploited since the dawn of the industrial civilization. This duality underlies the inspiration of the 'KI project', presented by the artist, artist Sunghe Oh, with the atelier of visual arts So Giu (Officina delle Arti - Reggio Emilia) and curated by Sara Montesello.
KI has been made possible thanks to the participation of Casalgrande Padana and takes place at their headquarters in Casalgrande (RE).
Ki is an oriental term that literally means Individual Essence. For the Asians the Ki involves an energetic concept: through this one describes the energies of the universe including nature and man as well as the individual characteristics that distinguish one individual from the other.
The KI project represents an attempt to connect the worlds of art and industry in new ways that transcend the standard practice of commissioning, bringing the individual energy and potential of artistic personalities right into the economic-productive sphere in order to give rise to something new, both in terms of what can be experienced and the resulting artistic creations.
During the month of September Casalgrande Padana will be hosting five artists.
Ree Soo Jong, Sunghe Oh and Mi Wha Park are artists who come from South Korea; they are experts in the ceramic arts. They constitute the fundamental nucleus of the initiative. As a matter of fact, KI also happens to be the acronym for Korea-Italy, a perfect coincidence when it comes to underscoring the importance of a cultural exchange between the industrial Italian experience (of which Casalgrande Padana Company is one of the major protagonists) and the millenary experience of Korean ceramic art.
Columbia's Juan Esteban Sandoval Arango and Italy's Cristina Mirandola are, on the other hand, conceptual artists who will participate in the event, applying their own creative methods to the industrial ceramic context, relating to and interpreting this environment in ways that are unusual for the manufacturing world.
The completion of the resulting works of art will inevitably be carried out in a rich context of hybridization and collaboration between the artists, the company personnel and the different cultures and abilities that will be brought in to close working contact.
Monday 29 September at 18:30, the Creative Centre of Casalgrande Padana (Via Statale 467, n. 101) will host a conference presenting KI; at this conference all the primary people involved in the initiative will talk.
The final exhibition will be held at the Creative Centre of Casalgrande Padana from 30 September to 4 October 2008 at the same time as the CERSAIE Fair in Bologna.
