With this exhibition, the Groninger Museum celebrates the acquisition of Keramikos 2, a collection of more than 300 ceramic dinnerware with accompanying tablecloths by Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and Natsuko Uchino. The two artists started making collections of ceramic works in 2010 in Amsterdam. The collaboration that began then has continued ever since, and they are now working on the sixth Keramikos series.
Keramikos is a sculpture composed of many parts, which can be activated through use. The title of this exhibition refers to The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. In this essay, Le Guin argues that humanity's first tool was not a spear used to hunt and kill animals, but a carrier bag – a container used for gathering and carrying food and other essentials. Lutz-Kinoy and Uchino share a deep-rooted interest in food cultures and see the plate as an index, a stage, a platform: a carrier bag.
Even when it is not being used as dinnerware, Keramikos gathers and carries. The work brings together art and functional objects, combining ceramic techniques and traditions with (art)historical and theoretical references. Lutz-Kinoy and Uchino activate Keramikos by presenting the dinnerware in dialogue with works from the Groninger Museum collection. Drawing on research conducted in Groningen, the artists selected collection pieces that establish associative connections with their own work. In Keramikos Carrier Bag, history is reshuffled so that surprising new connections emerge.
Curator: Roos Gortzak
Guest co-curator: Nicolas Trembley