“The future of our traditional craft is in doubt and the 2016/ project presents an opportunity to produce something totally new that I might not have come up with myself.”
Kawazoe Seizan, The Kawazoe Seizan Pottery
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“I took out the stand or ‘foot’ that is a common feature in Japanese tableware. They are largely quiet designs, intended to be unobtrusive on a table.”
Stefan Diez
Interview Arita 2016
“What was especially difficult about the collection was that is has 26 individual items, many more than other collections. And all the items that Diez designed have no traditional ‘stands’.”
Kawazoe Seizan
Interview Arita 2016
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“We had to get 100% out of our production system in order to make these designs by Stefan Diez. The labour of producing porcelain in Arita is divided amongst specialists and we worked together with mold makers and drapers…”
“It was an extremely difficult process to adjust manufacture to allow for shrinkage for each of the 26 shapes. In addition, Diez requested a thinness of 1mm and was very exacting. I have devoted more than 18 months just to getting this project right”.
Kawazoe Seizan, The Kawazoe Seizan Pottery
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SD for 2016/ ARITA
2016
25-teiliges Service – Porzellan
Das 25-teilige Service SD/2016 entstand anlässlich des 400-jährigen Jubiläums der berühmten japanischen Porzellanstadt Arita mit ihrem Netzwerk von über 200 Manufakturen und Industriebetrieben. Es dokumentiert die Tradition des Handwerks als ursprüngliche Inspirationsquelle, das in eine industrielle Fertigung umgesetzt wird. Nach zahlreichen Erprobungsphasen mit 1:1-Gipsmodellen im Münchner Office wurden die Modelle nach Japan geschickt, wo die erfahrenen Modelleure von Kawazoe Seizan das minimalistische Design and die industrielle Produktion anpassten. Zu den Höhepunkten dieser einzigartigen Kombination von Handwerk und Industrie gehören die Teekanne, deren Deckel ohne Griff auskommt und dadurch beim Einschenken nicht abfallen kann, das Teesieb mit seiner unverkennbaren Perforation, die per Hand in einem Kleinbetrieb hergestellt wird, sowie die Reibe für Ingwer und Rettich mit ihrer speziellen, handwerklich gefertigten Reibfläche, die vom Kunsthandwerker Kubota Minoru entwickelt und patentiert wurde. Prägnantestes Charakteristikum des Service ist jedoch der Verzicht auf Fußringe und die dadurch nahtlos ineinander übergehenden, dünnen Porzellanflächen.
Zusammen mit Jonathan Mauloubier und Hadrien Fouin
25-Piece Service – porcelain
Part of an initiative to celebrate the 400-year anniversary of the famous Japanese pottery town Arita, with its network of over 200 mutually-supporting manufactories and industrial enterprises, the 25-piece service SD/2016 looks at the expertise found in traditional craftsmanship as an original source of inspiration and applies it to the industrial process. After many rounds of plaster prototyping at 1:1 scale in the Munich studio, the models were sent to Japan, where their minimalist design was adapted to the industrial process by Kawazoe Seizan’s experienced team of modelers. Highlights of this unique combination of craft and industry include the teapot, whose ingenious opening mechanism makes do without an extra handle on the lid, preventing it from falling off when liquid is being poured, the tea strainer with its distinct perforation, which is created manually in a small manufactory, and the ginger and radish grater, which is furnished with a special artisanal friction surface, developed (and patented) by the manufacturer Kubota Minoru. The set’s most distinctive features, however, are the seamlessly merging, wafer-thin porcelain surfaces and the lack of foot-rings.
Together with Jonathan Mauloubier and Hadrien Fouin
