A Specific Decision
Paola Marini
Close by the church of San Lorenzo in Milan, in a small city workshop, Guido De Zan has been carrying on his work in the field of ceramics for over a decade. He came to ceramics after making a specific decision that was effectively an all-embracing life choice. In that sense he now rigorously adheres to the craft practice of manipulating forms in which the functional aspect, whether useful or decorative, still prevails.
Joining the ranks of European ‘Orientalists’, who have grown numerous since the early 20th century, he gradually mastered the secrets of the ancient Japanese technique of raku, later turning to work in porcelain and stoneware. He has thus reflected, as part of something like a process of initiation, on the ritual and symbolic values, as well as the formal and aesthetic ones, connected with the production and use of objects that habitually make up the domestic landscape and accompany the everyday actions of existence.
The finish of the volumes, the rapport that they establish with the surrounding space (which one imagines as empty as possible) and the unpredictability of certain formal and chromatic results all contribute to making richer and more stimulating, in its uniqueness, the visual and tactile approach toward these objects, whose presence in our home seems more satisfying and surely not accidental.
1989