Artistry@Work Series  

by Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the RAI

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Tuesday, 04 February 2025,  4:00-6:00pm GMT

This is an online event. Register here: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DihhqB12QZSXzF-fuIUsaQ 

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Image: © António Ramalho & Bárbara Neves Alves. Photograph by Vinicius Ferreira.

Clay Figuration in Barcelos, Portugal:
Crafting futures by re-imagining the past

Speaker: Sónia Mota Ribeiro, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Discussant: Stephanie Bunn, University of St Andrews

Abstract:

This seminar will focus on the practice of a group of artisans from the Barcelos region, in the north of Portugal. These “barristas” (clay artisans) inherited the knowledge of clay figurine moulding from their parents and grandparents, who were the most renown generations of clay figurine artists in the country and whose notoriety was due in part to the appropriation of popular culture by the Estado Novo dictatorship during the 1930s and 1940s, particularly the clay figurines of Barcelos. The seminar will examine how the contemporary artisans address the different temporalities and narratives present in the work by balancing the preservation of the traditional themes transmitted by their ancestors with the introduction of new forms and ideas in the figure-making process. The seminar will also investigate how their work has captured the attention of contemporary artists and designers, inspiring creative relationships and their own clay figuration practice.

Biographical note:

Sónia Mota Ribeiro is an anthropologist and an artist, researching in the areas of the anthropology of art, environmental anthropology and cultural heritage. She is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, NOVA University of Lisbon, where she is studying the world of clay figuration practices in the regions of Barcelos and Estremoz, Portugal, and focusing on the relationships between the local institutions and the artisans.

Stephanie Bunn is Leverhulme Emeritus Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, UK. She curated the first ever British Museum exhibition of Central Asian felt textiles, and is author of Nomadic Felt (2010), editor of Anthropology and Beauty (2016) and co-editor of The Material Culture of Basketry (Bloomsbury, 2020).

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Artistry@Work is an online Seminar Series in the Anthropology of Artists & Artisans, running 2024–2025 

Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute

Organisers:  Dr Raphaël Blanchier & Professor Trevor Marchand

This seminar series in anthropology explores the situated practices of ‘artistry at work’ and, more broadly, the working lives and career trajectories of artists and artisans plying their trades in regions around the globe. The scope of the series also encompasses studies of occupations not conventionally categorised as “artistic” but that nevertheless foster creativity among (some) practitioners and even accommodate the development of “artist” identities. 

Find a list of all events here.

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