Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Since at least the 16th century, potters in China’s eastern Jiangsu province have transformed the local clay into teapots sought after by tea aficionados and art collectors alike. Traditionally handcrafted from zisha (“purple sand”) clay using a slab-building technique, the unglazed pots are fired at high temperatures. This alchemy produces a porous structure that allows the tea’s natural oils to become absorbed into the pot over time. According to centuries of Chinese literati, zisha pots brew a superior cup of tea: Zhou Gaoqi, in the 1640s, wrote that the clay was “perfect for enhancing the colour, aroma and flavour of tea”, preferable even to the traditional metal teapot.The city of Yixing, in the south of Jiangsu, may be renowned among discerning tea drinkers, but it has less name recognition than, say, Jingdezhen, global centre of porcelain production for more than 1,700 years. Jingdezhen has cultural institutions designed by the likes of David Chipperfield and Studio Zhu-Pei and attracts artists and designers from across the world, not to mention crowds of tourists each year. Yixing, meanwhile, has always been a comparatively quiet place, albeit one with a dizzying number of pottery studios.This year, though, things are starting to change. October saw the opening of UCCA Clay — the contemporary art institution’s fourth space in China and its first dedicated to a single medium. It’s one of a suite of ceramics-themed cultural projects intended to boost the city’s profile as a tourist destination. The long-standing Yixing Ceramics Museum recently reopened following a superb renovation, and priceless teapots crafted by master potters now sit alongside displays explaining zisha’s remarkable properties. And the fabled Huanglongshan open-pit mine, where clay extraction ceased in 2004, has been remade as an attractive public park. A raised walkway wends through the site, around the expansive mine lake and past visible seams of clay in exposed rock faces. Given that Yixing already has a ceramics museum and now a mining heritage geopark, UCCA was invited, as director Philip Tinari puts it, “to do something unexpected in the local context. To create not another museum of teapots, but a contemporary art institution that could look outward from Yixing’s revered status in the ceramic world.”To that end, Japanese studio Kengo Kuma and Associates was engaged to create a building on the site of what was the state-owned Yixing Zisha Craft Factory No 2. Paying homage to the dragon’s semi-sacred status among Yixing potters, the new museum takes the crescent-shaped form of a sleeping dragon, whose “scales” are a facade constructed of 3,600 clay tiles. As with the distinctive zisha clay, whose colour changes depending on firing temperature, the tiles span a range of tones from light beige to a dark, earthy red.“Our goal was to create ceramic panels that showcased the craftsmanship of local artisans, rather than mass-produced industrial panels, conveying a sense of warmth and handwork,” explains Yutaka Terasaki, partner at Kengo Kuma and Associates. To achieve this warmth, the tiles combine cheaper mudstone with small amounts of the vastly more expensive zisha clay.The roof’s mountain-like peaks, formed by curved wooden beams arranged in a lattice, unite three separate pavilions. The largest houses a two-storey exhibition complex, with the others holding a café and an events space. Outside, the undulating form extends to meet the plaza, where arched glazed openings either lead into the pavilions or meet pools of water. Inside, though, the material unity of the facade gives way to visual noise: recycled brick flooring, grey brick walls and a glass balustrade all compete for attention with the exposed wooden lattice of the roof.The project speaks in part to the challenges of operating within China’s cultural sector. While the local government appointed Kuma in late 2018, UCCA weren’t appointed as operating directors until spring 2024, only months before the opening. Given the uncertainty over the museum’s operating company, Kuma’s office designed a building to fulfil the main brief: create a landmark to enhance Yixing’s image.This is perhaps why, as UCCA’s assistant curator Zhang Yao says, gesturing towards an obtrusive stepped seating area, the exhibition spaces are tricky to work with. For the opening show, The Ways of Clay, 69 award-winning objects from the International Ceramics Festival Mino in Japan have been brought to Yixing. Initiated in 1986, the festival was conceived to revive the centuries-old tradition of Mino ware, though its award-winners are drawn from across a wider range of ceramic practices.Zhang and Tinari have arranged the works within three broad thematic groups: natural forms, geometric explorations and contemporary art ceramics. Downstairs, most pieces are functional: a set of white porcelain nesting petal plates (2005) by Ido Masanobu and 12 oversized seeds that double up as vases (1998), sculpted by Kawakami Tomoko in coarse brown clay. Others, such as an eye-catching group of shallow dishes (1995) by Beth Forer, show off challenging traditional techniques where coloured pieces of clay are stacked, then sliced through the cross-section to reveal a pattern. The pieces here are decorative and often technically impressive, but also feel somewhat removed from the cutting edge of contemporary art practice.Upstairs, the exhibition turns towards conceptual work. Sita Wong’s installation “Hundred Rice Bowls” (2016) features the same sculpted bowl of rice expressed in a riot of different colours, a nod to the complex navigation of individuality and community in east Asian cultures. Fittingly, the exhibition’s standout work is by a Chinese artist. Taking up a large wall space in the ground-floor foyer, Ma Huiyuan’s “Porcelain Series” (2017) comprises 81 ceramic painted porcelain panels, each one depicting an individual ceramic vessel, the whole an extraordinary array of shapes, patterns and colours. In the hierarchy of ceramics, painted panels, similar to tiles, reside firmly at the bottom, but this playful, delicate and beautifully observed taxonomy of traditional Chinese porcelain forms is a welcome addition to an otherwise lacklustre exhibition.Programming for 2025, when UCCA takes full curatorial control, will be announced in January, and Tinari says that certain artists commissioned for future shows will be invited to spend time and make new work in Yixing.Back outside, the late afternoon sunshine bounces across the tiles, bathing the building in a photogenic glow. Despite being closed on Mondays, UCCA Clay is attracting crowds. A large group of visiting businessmen are having their photo taken, jostling for space with smaller groups of women taking portraits with what look like professional photographers. Everyone is dressed up. Kuma’s clay dragon seems to be fulfilling its brief.‘The Ways of Clay’, to February 23, ucca.org.cnFind out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
