"Raw Moderism: Accolay Clay Today", UCCA Clay Museum

The Consortium Museum in Yixing, China, is presenting 'Raw Modernism: Accolay Clay Today” at the UCCA Clay Museum. This group exhibition brings together the largest collection of Accolay ceramics, produced in the Yonne department of Burgundy, and juxtaposes them with contemporary sculptures selected by the exhibition’s curators, Franck Gautherot and Seungduk Kim. 
Blending folk art, fine art, craftsmanship, design and self-taught modernism, the work of the Accolay potters is being presented in China for the first time through this exhibition. The exhibition creates a dialogue between these historic ceramics and contemporary practices by using the technical processes of clay, its materiality, and its expressive potential to bridge the two periods. The eight contemporary artists brought together here — from France (Sylvie Auvray and Nitsa Meletopoulos), Italy (Roberto Cuoghi), Japan (Rena Kudoh and Takuro Kuwata) and China (Geng Xue, Ou Ming and Sun Yue) — were selected because their works echo, while also challenging, the creations of the Accolay potters.

"Raw Modernism: Accolay Clay Today"

At the end of World War II, a small group of “hipsters” (zazous in French) living in Paris decided to leave the capital for the provinces to start a new life as potters. André Boutaud (1920-1980), Louis Dangon (1913-2000), Wladislaw (a.k.a. Slavik) Palley (1920-2005), and H. Raudé (date of birth unknown) were the initiators of this adventure, which officially started on October 26, 1945.

They pictured themselves driving down to the Mediterranean Sea, on Route Nationale 6, then the main road to the southern coast. How far, they asked themselves, could you drive before you needed to stop for gas? Perhaps to Vermenton, a typical village in northern Burgundy. They opened a gas station on its outskirts, and in Accolay, a quiet village nearby, established a pottery studio. They put their works up for sale at the gas station, presenting them on custommade displays, or simply arranging them on the ground. With this marketing masterstroke, the Accolay potters announced themselves to the world.

Emerging in the context of postwar reconstruction, Accolay ceramics are characterized by experimental approaches to form, surface, and glazing. Positioned at the intersection of art, craft, and design, these works reflect a modernist sensibility grounded in material exploration and collective production. Mixing freedom and daring with apprenticeship-based learning, the unconventional attitudes encapsulated in these works resonate deeply with contemporary ceramic practices. The potters signed their pieces “Accolay,” foregoing individual authorship for the benefit of the collective, a brand that was also the name of a place, a village anchored in French rural life. Craftspeople and artists would stop by the Accolay workshop, some working and creating there for extended periods, others just staying for temporary seasonal jobs. Some of their names are recorded, but many were not.

This happy story ended dramatically after the passing of Boutaud, the potters’ de facto leader. It would take until 1989 to fully close the company they had established. The gas station was abandoned, then torn down in 2009. What remains is the thousands of pieces produced in Accolay, collected by connoisseurs but somehow forgotten within the gaps between different “modernisms.”

The first half of the exhibition title references how the power of the kiln transmutes “raw” clay into fired material, solid and permanent. Matter becomes object. This is untamed, autodidactic modernism, in which inspirations and imagery were grabbed from mass media, made during an epoch in which there was a shared fascination with the new, abstraction, and novel materials, as well as a thirst for a new pop culture. Connecting folk art, high art, craft, design, and self-taught modernity, the work of the Accolay potters finally arrives in China with this exhibition.

By placing historical Accolay ceramics in dialogue with contemporary practices, the exhibition positions clay’s technical processes, materiality, and expressive potential as a bridge between these two eras. Hailing from France (Sylvie Auvray, Nitsa Meletopoulos), Italy (Roberto Cuoghi), Japan (Rena Kudoh, Takuro Kuwata), China (Geng Xue, Ou Ming, Sun Yue), the eight contemporary artists featured here have been carefully selected for how their works echo—and also challenge—the output of the Accolay potters. Tactile, malleable, fragile, ambiguous, porous, shiny, matte, colored, decorative, functional, traditional, experimental, chic, desirable, forgettable, unforgettable… this is clay today!

“Raw Modernism: Accolay Clay Today” is presented by UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in collaboration with Consortium Museum in Dijon, France. It is curated by Franck Gautherot, co-founder and co-director of Consortium Museum, Seung-duk Kim, co-director of Consortium Museum, and UCCA Assistant Curator Zhang Yao, with exhibition design by matali crasset. Accolay ceramics appear courtesy Collection Pierre Emile Pralus. UCCA thanks the members of UCCA Foundation Council, International Circle, and Young Associates, as well as Lead Partners Aranya, Dior, and The Donum Estate, Presenting Partner Bloomberg, and Supporting Partners AIA, Barco, Dulux, Genelec, SKP Beijing, Stey, and Wanbo Media Group.

UCCA Clay Museum
Dingshu Town, Yixing City
Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province 214221
Website: ucca.org.cn