Menemen Municipality proudly hosted its 3rd Annual International Pottery Festival from September 6 to 8 in Menemen, Türkiye. Menemen, part of the İzmir province, has a rich pottery history dating back to ancient civilizations. This year, the festival hosted numerous masters, artists, academics, and cultural professionals, with over 70 participants from 39 countries. Alongside the pottery fair, the event featured exhibitions that explored contemporary interpretations of ceramics, combining traditional techniques with modern design elements to create innovative works. The wide range of exhibited pieces, from figurative to abstract, offered art enthusiasts a rich and diverse experience where art and craft meet the millennia-old tradition of clay...
The theme of this year’s annual pottery festival, The Heart of Clay is Menemen, is built on the significant achievements of the past two years. Known for its distinctive red clay, Menemen has long been a place for skilled artisans who use traditional techniques like hand-throwing and painting with natural pigments resulting in intricate designs inspired by local culture and nature.
Menemen pottery encompasses both functional and decorative items, including pots, jars, jugs, vases, bowls, tiles, flower pots, tandoors, casseroles, ashtrays, garden decorations, and more. This craftsmanship reflects the region's deep cultural heritage, which remains an important part of Menemen's identity today. While honoring its historical roots, the pottery industry has adapted to modern times. Traditional seventh-generation wheels have been replaced by electric motors, and the area now features eight large workshops.
Over the course of the three-day festival, ceramists and masters conducted workshops showcasing a range of techniques. These included a raku firing demonstration by Turkish ceramic artist Tevfik Türedi Karagözoğlu, and luster firings by notable ceramic masters Abbas Akbari from Iran, Stratos Karakitsos from Greece, and Turkish luster artist Emir Taşdemir.
On the first evening, a large pottery firing demonstration was led by internationally renowned pottery master Ahmet Tashomcu from Menemen and Russian pottery artist Zinaida Korchagina. The three-day festival also included presentations, musical performances, and a ceremony where Menemen Mayor Aydın Pehlivan presented plaques and gifts to the contest winners, who had come from both domestic and international locations to participate in the event’s competitions.
The festival featured a contemporary art contest, curated by Ebru Ilbeyci, titled “Hemhal” (meaning "engaged"), with first place awarded to Semiha Atabey for her piece Cycle. In addition to this competition, there were several other contests across various categories, including Masters of Aesthetics, Masters of Aesthetics Jury Special, Masters Technical Branch, and Amateur Aesthetics.
As part of the International Menemen Pottery Festival, the panel titled Menemen Pottery from the Logbook of History took place on September 6, 2024, at the Menemen Cultural Center. Moderated by Argun Yüksel of Topsan A.Ş., the panel featured distinguished speakers, including Prof. Dr. Ersin Doğer, Assoc. Prof. Füsun Çövenoğlu, ceramic artist Mehmet Tüzüm Kızılcan, pottery artist Ulieana Trandafilova Tekin, and Menemen master Orkun Küpçü, who shared their insights and experiences with the audience.
Menemen welcomes the world, and the world competes in Menemen. - Sinan Kerim, festival coordinator.
Anatolia’s ancient pottery tradition continues to thrive and evolve in both large and small workshops across cities such as Avanos, Bilecik, Çanakkale, Diyarbakır, Eskişehir, Iznik, Konya, Kütahya, Manisa, and Menemen.
Yeliz Saydan is the Community Outreach and Business Associate at MoCA/NY and a ceramic artist and researcher born in Turkey. She graduated from the Ceramics Department of the Fine Arts Faculty in Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. She has a MA degree in the same discipline. Along with practicing clay art, she is interested in culture-art, media-communication, social and educational projects. She gained experience and involved in several EU projects in Turkey, Germany, Spain and Italy. In particular, she has been conducting research on destinations of ceramic cities.
