Ten years after the reopening of the Museo Civico Pier Alessandro Garda to the public, 2024 marks an important milestone to celebrate which the museum’s permanent collections were to be enhanced, seeking within them a link, a transversal element that would be able to offer the public new elements: clay, in its various forms from earthenware to porcelain, is the element present in all the collections.
In the archaeological one it manifests itself in different forms and consistencies: from simple roof tiles to elaborate oil lamps or even everyday objects found on Roman tables. In the Guelpa-Croff collection there are tea sets, coffee sets, complete table sets, but also isolated objects of great value. More numerous and consistent is the presence of ceramic objects in the Oriental collection.
In designing the exhibition, an attempt was made not only to identify a connecting element, but also to strengthen the content, delving into some of the meanings of which this simple element could be the bearer: the fragility, the weakness inherent in this material that breaks, fractures and scratches easily, but also, on the contrary, the ability to use a weakness, a wound to create strength, beauty and rebirth, as through the ancient technique of kintsugi.
In addition to displaying objects from the Garda Museum’s collections, the exhibition also enhances them by comparing and relating them with other works of art from important museums, foundations and private collections.
Also of great importance are the connections with the territory, in particular with the ceramic tradition expressed by the town of Castellamonte through the creations of some artists of the second half of the 20th century, which will allow us to understand the evolution of this ductile and transformable material, up to the use of 3D printing.

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