Fragments of history

This exhibition by Finnish ceramist Pekka Paikkari offers an original dialogue between contemporary art and archaeology. Set in the rooms of the Ensérune archaeological museum, it weaves a poetic and conceptual link between the artist's works and the museum's permanent collections.

By combining fragmentation, reconstruction and forms inspired by ancient artefacts, the artist Pekka Paikkari questions our relationship with time, memory and the identity of objects. His large wall plaques, made from cracked clay and reassembled into monumental compositions, evoke the gestures of archaeologists reconstructing shards from the past. His sculptures, meanwhile, take on the appearance of familiar objects that have become unrecognisable - bottles, vases or crockery - as if exhumed from an indecipherable past.

Far from being a simple historical evocation, the exhibition invites the viewer to become actively involved, to reflect on the fragility of civilisations and the beauty born of impermanence. In a world saturated with rationality and consumerism, the artist transforms everyday objects into 'objects of curiosity', resisting any definitive interpretation and taking a critical look at our times.

The exhibition "Fragments d'Histoire" blurs the boundaries between art and archaeology, past and present, and invites us to take a fresh look at the remains - real or imagined - of our collective history.

The "Fragments d'Histoire" exhibition was created in partnership with the Don du Fel, a European centre for contemporary ceramics that has been based in the Lot valley in the north of the Aveyron département for some twenty years. The only gallery to have exhibited the work of Pekka Paikkari in France, its founder, Nigel Atkins, co-curator of the exhibition, offers us a rare selection of selected works. His singular pieces resonate with one of the most important collections of ancient vases ever discovered in France.

Born in Finland, Pekka Paikkari is a major figure in contemporary ceramics, renowned for his radical and poetic approach to materials. Moving away from traditional utilitarian forms, he explores the expressive potential of clay through fragmentation, rupture and reconstruction. His works, which he sometimes describes as 'objects of curiosity', question our relationship with time, memory and the function of objects.

Often working on a monumental scale, Pekka Paikkari creates wall panels with fractured surfaces and ambivalent sculptures, halfway between archaeological remains and enigmatic forms. His formal language evokes the gestures of the archaeologist as much as those of the painter or sculptor, blurring temporal and cultural reference points.

Pekka Paikkari's work is part of a profound reflection on impermanence and fragility, proposing an aesthetic of trace, fragment and uncertainty. His work, exhibited internationally, occupies a singular place on the artistic scene, at the crossroads of memory, matter and sensibility.

Le Don du Fel is surprising, as much for the boldness of its location perched high above the Lot gorges as for the beauty of its building, curving like a Richard Serra sculpture.

Founded by an Anglo-American expatriate couple nearly twenty years ago, and now run by their son Kélian, this magical place is internationally recognised as one of the leading centres for ceramic art in Europe.

Its secret? Initially, the old-fashioned training of the founders and the creative in-house production of Suzy Atkins, renowned the world over for her diversification of the salt-glazing technique.

And then, since the opening of the Galerie du Don, the rigour and professionalism of the entire team, who welcome some fifty thousand visitors a year, seven days a week.

On the heights of Le Fel, in the Aveyron department, the Atkins have set up, as the Bras family did in Laguiole, an essential cultural destination where a succession of exceptional exhibitions, twelve months a year, showcase the astonishing diversity of international ceramic art.