Ceramist Paul Haber was selected to take part in the seventh edition of ArtCeram 2020, which was held recently in the city of Sèvres, France.

ArtCeram 2020 is an international ceramics biennale exposing the latest trends in ceramic creation and is held at Le Sel de Sèvres, an arts and culture centre. Among others, it presents masters of glazes, porcelain, terra sigillata and wood-oven firing.

Haber was chosen to represent Malta by an international jury that also invited renowned foreign artists from countries such as Brazil, Italy, Spain, Germany and France.

Haber is no newcomer to the French art scene as he had set up the exhibition Colours of Malta at the Mairie du Louvre town hall, right opposite the Louvre Museum in Paris, in 2018. It was curated by art critic and collector Olivier Plique.

The seventh edition of the biennale focused on the flourishing and diverse creativity of our time. It offered contrasting points of view while raising questions.

Paul Haber at work.

Haber was selected to represent Malta by an international jury

“The hallmark of our modernity, in the wake of the almost constant questioning of all kinds, has been to free ourselves from old models and accepted conventions. The most unbridled fantasy, the whimsical, the contestation, the derision, the ideology and militancy have gradually come to largely supplant the former primacy of technical research and aesthetic perfection,” art critic and collector Jean François Juilliard wrote in the foreword of the exhibition catalogue.

“Often, technical competence bends to the imperatives of the prevailing consumerism by privileging the superficial shock of novelty, the ephemeral of surprise instead of the search for excellence and a more lasting harmony,” he continued.

“This youthful, ardent, rapid, turbulent and anarchic creativity brings to the visitor, the amateur, an immediate impression of freshness, discovery and even a touch of sensitivity. It is especially noticeable in ceramic sculpture, which tends to become the apex of the practice of pottery. This is a new adventure which is being proposed and which can be opposed to the judgment of taste.”

ArtCeram 2020 also supported the great tradition of art pottery from China, Japan, Korea and Persia.  

A general view of the exhibition space.