By Tontouristen Kollektiv
A contemporary and popular idea about clay and ceramics is of a romantic character. It is associated with slow movement, the field of small-scale business, handmade juxtaposed to industrial, therapeutic, and healing: a justified way to navigate in this time of heavy materialistic and commercial reality. Clay is also mistaken to be sustainable, harmless, and ‘pure’ – a material untouched by industrial processes or ecological consequences.
These preconceptions are, of course, not completely false or wrong, but clay is a much more complex material than this. Clay is also a globally traded commodity, shipped around the planet for a multitude of purposes and products. This trade is far from innocent when it comes to carbon emissions, environmental and ecological impact as well as social exploitation and injustice.
We find ourselves as ceramic artists in this gap between the two extremes of how the story of clay is perceived. We became aware of a blind spot in our knowledge.
We didn’t know very much about the origin of the clay we buy in bags from our retail shop. Tontouristen Kollektiv created platforms for artistic investigations and conversations around this blind spot. We are a ceramic artist collective exploring the intrinsic narratives of clay through artistic research and site-specific practice. Based in Sweden, we investigate the complex material journey of clay – from extraction to use – through video, sound, movement, and writing. Most clays used in Swedish studio pottery come from the Westerwald area in Germany. The stoneware deposits in Westerwald are among Europe’s largest and highest quality ones.
In Höhr-Grenzhausen (Germany) one can observe multiple perspectives on clay production coexisting simultaneously: the city’s numerous monuments tell about the clay mining, pottery production and kiln firing. The public art is all made of ceramics. Characteristic blue and grey, often salt-glazed, pots are used in the most imaginative ways. An annual pottery market gathers potters and tourists from all over Europe. Westerwald Ceramic Museum is a well-known institution in the ceramic communities all over the world. IKKG – Institute for Ceramic and Glass Art is a university with a high artistic profile in the middle of the town. However, pottery production, once dominating the town and finding its wealth, is now diminished. Throughout the city, empty shop windows and closed family businesses bear witness to a more significant past.
The surrounding area has around fifty active clay mines as well as uncountable inactive, recultivated or abandoned mines. The distinguishing features of Westerwald stoneware are its high density, hardness and durability. The clay pits contain a wide variety of colors and qualities of clay. Around twenty different clays can be found in a single pit. The best qualities of clay are found in the deepest layers of the mines.
On average, the clay extraction pits are around thirty meters deep. The deepest pit is located near Meudt and is up to ninety meters deep. Clay mining changes the landscape drastically. In Germany, it takes many years to obtain permission to open a clay pit, as everything has to be approved by the authorities, including recultivation after the pit is closed. Two-thirds of the mined clay goes to the production of industrial wares.
In spring 2023 Tontouristen travelled around the area. We could not believe our eyes the first time we saw a clay mine (named Esther). It was so much larger than we had ever imagined. The various colors of the clay were beautiful and appeared almost surreal against the backdrop of industrial activity. A few days later, we had the opportunity to visit the largest pit and drive down to its bottom. A constant flow of blue trucks were driving up and down the roads on the side of the mine. There was an enormous gap in perspectives between the small ten-kilo bag we used to open in our studios while standing at the bottom of a massive clay pit.
In the clay factory, we learned about the energy-consuming process of making clay and producing grog. The clay needs to undergo several stages: sorting, drying, crushing, mixing, extruding and packing before being shipped all over the world.
As energy prices rise and regulations around opening new mines tighten, clay is likely to become more expensive, and with the high-quality deposits in Westerwald potentially depleted within 300-500 years, the future of ceramics raises critical questions – will clay become a scarce, high-priced commodity?
We emphasized the practice of gathering information with all our senses, using sound recordings, photos, videos, words, movements in nature, and writing as our tools. The resulting work Deposit is a three-channel video, where different aspects of mining are reflected upon: the nature, the factory, and the mine. We explored the interconnections between these elements within the clay extraction process. What caught our attention the most was the interference with natural habitats and the lasting scars in the landscape – changes that cannot be overlooked and reversed.
In the spring of 2024, we returned to Westerwald and were invited as guest lecturers by the IKKG to work with a group of students for some weeks. We asked the performance artist and researcher Dr. Nathalie S. Fari to lead a week of experimenting workshops where we learned ‘Body Mapping’ – bodily interventions as methods to find new layers and stories. Together, we explored the old Kannofen, a historic and one-of-a-kind kiln for salt firing at the university’s property and, later, the pottery market in town. The method of ‘Body Mapping’ was helpful for seeing ceramics with new eyes.
During these weeks, we made our second work, “Mine is mine”. The film was produced as a series of connected sequences performed and filmed around the clay mines. Access to the clay mines is strictly prohibited, both for active sites and those that are temporarily or permanently inactive. The numerous signs telling us to keep out were triggering, almost inspiring. We filmed on the rim of a big mine. Like the grass and shrubs, we could overlook the mine but not enter it. The atmosphere felt very special; we asked ourselves, ‘Are we intruders, or are we nature?’ We tried to identify with nature who is just waiting to take back the ground, slowly and invisibly trespassing.
The work depicts a playful limbo, a trancelike stage disconnected from time.
By using our own bodies, we investigated a feeling of being something between humans and nature, approaching with curiosity and creativity.
We performed a series of interventions to explore the imaginative future of clay as a resource and cultural heritage. In one scene, we threw pots in the air, imagining a world where clay is depleted – would the gestures of making persist even without the material? In another scene, we buried a salt-glazed pot, reflecting on a time when traditional Westerwald stoneware production is no longer a practiced craft, turning into an archaeological relic. We also enacted waiting at the clay mines, confronting the uncertainty of access to the resource. In another scene, we reclaim the power of the clay pits and the territory owned by private companies.
Next to a clay pit, we encountered a mining machine. In contrast to its rigid, mechanical function, we responded with soft, flowing movements – an act of resistance against the harsh logic of extraction. This contrast embodied the tension between industry and craft, mechanization and human touch.
These performative interventions allowed us to engage with clay beyond its physical properties, tracing its deeper ecological, cultural and historical weight. While performing close to the mines, we felt a profound connection to the ground – more than we used to when just working with clay, but moving through it, entangled in its past, present, and speculative future.
Digging deeper into the material narratives is an eye-opening journey. We ask ourselves new questions. Are powerful narratives created by ourselves as comfort and justification? Do we direct them to fit our needs?
Who are we as individual small-scale artists in this? Who has the right to take this material stored deep down in the ground?
Clay may become a much more expensive material. What will that do to the crafts? Clay has been seen as a cheap, almost free material, what happens when it becomes more pricey? Who will work with it? Who will pay for the outcomes?
Tontouristen Kollektiv is interested in the material shift and transformative journey of the clay. Tontouristen is German and can be translated into clay tourists. The collective was founded in 2023 and consists of Anne-Marie Dehon (BE/SE), Marilen Rauch (DE/SE), and Jennifer Forsberg (SE).
We work in the realm of ceramic art by using a range of mediums and techniques in our individual practices. Together, we explore the intrinsic narratives of clay, where collaborating as a group opens up new processes and allows us to approach the material through innovative methods alongside our personal practices. Our work has been shown during Stockholm Craft Week (Stockholm, SE, 2023 and 2024), the European Ceramic Context (Bornholm, DK, 2024), and at Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival (Korçë, AL and New York, US, 2024).
Our upcoming projects continue the exploration of clay’s extractive histories. This year, we will travel to Limoges and Sèvres in France to investigate the legacy of porcelain production. From the now-closed kaolin mines to the industry built around them, we will trace the social and environmental impact of resource depletion.
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Photos courtesy of Tontouristen Kollectiv
