“Menemen International Pottery Festival", which was organized for the third time this year in Menemen district, one of the traditional ceramic production centers of Izmir, was held between 6-8 September 2024.
ASOC. PROF. M. CANDAN GUNGOR
Organized by Menemen Municipality with the theme "Menemen, the Heart of Clay", the festival aims to revive the traditional art of pottery by bringing together masters from different pottery centers from Turkey and the world, to introduce new generations to this valuable heritage and to introduce the cultural richness of Menemen at the international level.
Organized with the initiatives of Menemen Mayor Aydin Pehlivan, the festival also brings together the ceramic industry, ceramic education, traditional ceramics and contemporary ceramic art.
This year, artists and masters from 39 countries participated in the Menemen Pottery Festival. The exhibitions, workshops, competitions and the panel titled "Menemen Pottery from the Logbook of History" organized within the scope of the festival were held with intense audience participation.
The "Hemhal Artistic Ceramics Competition", organized at the national level, was opened to art lovers with a wide participation on the first day of the festival, and the awards were presented to the award-winning artists at the opening ceremony. In the opening speeches, the valuable artist and art lover Mrs. Yildiz Sima, who we lost last year, was commemorated and it was promised that different exhibitions would be organized in the coming years to keep her name alive.
In the competition curated by Ebru Ilbeyci, Semiha Atabey's works were awarded first place, Filiz Aktugan Yelken's second place, Ferit Cihat Sertkaya's third place, Sevgi Kilinc's first honorable mention, Gulce Albayrak's second honorable mention, and Filiz Sir's third honorable mention. Special jury awards were given to the works of Birsen Unluturk, Gulumser Aydemir, Caner Guner and Kamuran Ak. On the same day, the firing of the kiln-sculpture project, which was carried out in a long process by Ahmet Tashomcu, the President of Menemen Pottery Society, was completed and opened and turned into a great visual feast for the audience.
Undoubtedly, the most exciting competition of the festival was the "Skilled Hands Pottery Competition", in which nationally and internationally renowned pottery masters participated. The names that received awards in various categories at the closing ceremony of the festival are as follows:
Masters Aesthetic Branch: Ugur Tokmak, Talip Yel, Ali Buzkan;
Masters Aesthetics Special Jury Award: Ramazan Yaman, Svetlana Iliuschonac, Veysi Polat;
Masters Technical Branch: Oktay Ide, Ugur Tokmak, Ali Hikmet Koc;
Amateur Aesthetic Branch: Elif Kazan, Abdullah Oruc, Busra Kaya.
We hope that this comprehensive festival, held in Menemen, one of the important districts of the Aegean with its archaeological history and rich cultural heritage, will set an example for other centers of our country. As Menemen Mayor Mr. Aydin Pehlivan stated in his speech; “Together, let's celebrate this art that was born and grown from the lands of Menemen and pass it on to future generations.”
