Torbjørn Kvasbø The president of the International Academy of Ceramics uses strong words in his final speech of this years conference. His powerful warnings about the future with decidedly calm images still resonate in my mind. He adresses ceramicists, the artists as well as the craftsmen and -women. Tobjörn asks many questions

A brief summery of his words at the end of the 49th congress of the IAC, Rovaniemi

He thinks that to relate to each other by communication and friendship across all borders is vital. It enhances the level of quality among ceramists. How can we become involved ? Can we figure out ways to become involved? Can we be advocats of the world we work in - and for- the clay that comes from the soil?

As specialists we are asked to position ourselfs in societies. We need to respond to currant and future challenges.

During the Covid pandemic we found the whole Earth in a state of emergency. And we are indeed in a crisis of the environment that needs all our efforts to revise our behaviour. The impact has been enourmous. The interaction between people and the people and their environment have been greatly affected. We have a climate report from the UNO that warns us, that our future will be red hot!

Torbjørn asks the question what it could be that we do not see.

It is here, that I start to persue my own trails of thinking. What we do not see must be inside us, in our heads. Maybe the world outside us has become estranged from its representation we have in our minds. Maybe the reality of the material world has fallen out with our value system. The idea of unlimited resouces is a fatal mistake. Do we replace our own short time on Earth with something outside of us?

We are not endless, not eternal, we age and eventually disappear. But these are facts that aren’t visible anywhere in the outside world. No poster shows a patient at the final stages of life. No website is glamourously showing the pain of loosing a loved one. We are living in a glittery images, that create a kind of circus in our minds, that has no connection with what really happens.

Reflections

Yesterday we were sharing a beautiful dinner with friends, one of whom is working in the Elderly Care Organisation of our region. What she told us about her work were the frantic pace of caregiving, the steadily growing pressure on the staff, the shortage of personnel. All of them leading to burnout and finally loosing all the time members of a team that was once strong and passionate about their work. Clearly the values have shifted from unmeasureable good care for each other to a money making apparatus, that is measurable in numbers on paper.

We see money, but we don’t see consideration of one person for another.

Better control by separation of coworkers, seems to me to be the root of not taking care, not even noticing the decline of this planet. We are depleting our own garden, our paradise, and we don’t care.

Writing this down is not easy for me. It fills my heart with sadness, because it seems to me that I have fought this uphill battle since I was a young woman. Being ridiculed all along the way because I was saving drinking water, went on foot or train whenever possible, searching for a way to live healthily in a well constructed wooden house near some huge trees. My goal in life is to be aware. Have an open heart and mind to the massacre of species that is happening right now in this very moment. All this we don’t see.

What can we do?

Actually, we can do something, and that is to slow down and reflect. Look in the mirror and accept what we are- full of flaws, ugly, tired, flaky!

In my work I relate to all this by leaving the mark of the making, by stopping the perfection halfway. It is the human hand that touches the object, and the less perfection is in the object, the more the hand gains in value and importance. It is of vital interest for humans, to realise that. Everything they touch has meaning, and maybe it is possible to raise awareness, how sensibility is the answer.