Camille Virot
Bol-genese
BOL GENESE
The Genesis of a bowl.
Firstly it is the idea of a bowl, maybe a hollow
in the rock where water collects.
It is a ceramic object made from geological
substances.
It is the minerals that inform the shape of the object.
It is in the reunification by fire that, after multiple failures, a new object is born.
It is recycling material.
It also alludes to the Raku bowl of the Japanese tea ceremony immersed in the “natural”.
The technique is complex and difficult and has taken many years to develop.
There
are multiple firings (usually 6 to 8) depending on the material. The
pieces are built in layers in several sequences alternating building
and firing. Material used includes “pate de verre” (glass
paste) vitreous concrete (glass and concrete) cement, aluminium and bronze
as well as clay. The materials have many sources eg from previous failures
which are crushed and reused, minerals collected from the local area,
or industrial products.
Camille Virot studied ceramics at the School of Fine Art in Besancon and then studied decorative arts at the school of fine art in Strasbourg.
In 1972 Camille Virot started his own studio in Provence and began to work with raku.
Since 1976, he has been sharing his time between a teaching activity
(Organising training sessions and being a consultant in art schools),
and the search for his own artistic expression inspired by the traditional
notions of Japanese Raku.
Since 1990 Camille Virot has been incorporating different materials like wood, metal and paint in his ceramics.
In 1985 he created “les Dossiers d’Argile” (the clay files), an irregularly occuring publication centred on the reflection of contemporary ceramics.