Eugenia Bracony

Artist Statement

I am a ceramic artist working predominantly with clay to express concepts of emptiness through objects, structures and installations. The irreducibility of emptiness, or, to be more precise, the space that empty space takes up is an inherent problem of ceramics that I have been concerned with lately. Having worked for many years on functional objects, at some point I realized that without emptiness, functional objects could not exist. I was immediately drawn to the metaphorical possibilities of this condition, which, in consequence led to a group of nonfunctional works.

The objects I work with are made through coil building, the method used for centuries in traditional pottery in the North of Argentina and the rest of Latin America. This millenary technique is extremely malleable and allows for all sorts of forms and shapes. On the other hand, the process of coiling illustrates very clearly how the object affects space and how the empty space is an active part of the final result. Emptiness appears to be contained both by the sculptural and functional objects, whereas in the structures I work with emptiness runs through it. These structures are made of modules that expand in order to create a pattern. The negative space that’s necessary to create this sort of fabric is the very force that showcases the fragility of these pieces.

All these works seem to express that emptiness, however ungraspable, is far from incorporeal. Manifesting the unattainable and irreducible aspects of space along with the fragility of the materials and the power of the intangible are some of the subjects that my work revolves around. In this sense, I am convinced that clay, in all its possible forms, is an endless source of inspiration for poetic production.

-- Eugenia Bracony

Bio

Eugenia Bracony was born in Växjö, Sweden in 1983. Her parents – both Argentinean, and exiled during military dictatorship – returned with their family to their country in 1988, in the early days of the democracy. They settled in Paraná, Entre Rios, where the family is originally from.

Bracony studied in Santa Fe at the Juan Mantovani school, where she had the opportunity to study with ceramicist Tusi Horn, deciding there and then to dedicate herself exclusively to the universe of ceramics. In 2003 she moved to Buenos Aires to delve deeper into the field of ceramics. As a student she began what is still her brand and production of high fire functional objects, Cajonera Cerámica.

In 2008 she majored in ceramics and became a certified teacher from the prestigious Instituto de Cerámica de Avellaneda Emilio Villafañe, working as a teaching assistant and eventually professor for several courses.

In 2010/2011 she participated in the Escuela de Proyecto para Artistas program with Manuel Amestoy, Augusto Zanela, Andrea Juan and Sergio Bazán. She later continued her education with renown artists Graciela Olio and Mónica Millán.

Eugenia has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, and has received numerous awards, such as the first acquisition award of the Salón Municipal de Cerámica de Avellaneda, a mention in the 105th Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, second prize in the 103rd Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, first place consecutively for two years in the Concurso Nacional de Artesanías del Fondo Nacional De las Artes and 2nd place for two consecutive years in the Salón Nacional de Creatividad y Diseño.

In 2017 she participated in the KÜNSTLERHAUS STADTTÖPFEREI NEUMÜNSTER residency for artists in Germany.

She currently lives and works in Buenos Aires and is a professor at the Instituto de Cerámica de Avellaneda for the Tecnología de los Materiales Cerámicos y alfarería (Technology of Ceramics and Pottery Materials) course.