Clay-based experience & languageness

Mårten Medbo is a ceramicist who currently holds a position as senior lecturer at Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm. When he, as an artistic researcher, defended his dissertation in 2016, he was the first to do so in the subject area Craft in Sweden. This is how he himself describes his research project:

It has been more than a decade since the research project presented here began, and just over six years since it ended. It goes without saying that some issues raised in the text have become less relevant over time, while others instead have become more so. Having said this, it can also be stated that the main themes of the thesis are timeless and constantly relevant for the artistic practitioners.

The project is an attempt to better understand and describe the craft practice from an inside perspective. In all simplicity, it is about how art's linguistic expressions are created and how these expressions then land in a common realm where they are interpreted. The investigation raises questions like: How can art be understood as a way to communicate, or as a linguistic practice? What role does craft play in artistic creation? How is it determined what is a valid artistic expression or not? Does immaterial art exist?