A Ceramic Encounter Between Past and Present Has Moved On to Hjorths Fabrik

The project “Alchemical Gathering” grew out of Vejen Art Museum’s ongoing dialogue with ceramic artists Ane Fabricius Christiansen and Vinni Hedegaard Frederiksen. The aim was to explore the legacy of local sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen (1861–1941).

Vejen Art Museum invited ten contemporary ceramic artists – Ane Fabricius Christiansen, Lisbeth Voigt Durand, Vinni Hedegaard Frederiksen, Karen Harsbo, Sophus Ejler Jepsen, Annelie Grimwade Olofsson, Lise Seier Petersen, Pernille Pontoppidan, Bente Skjøttgaard, and Anne Tophøj – to engage in a conversation with the ceramic works created by Niels Hansen Jacobsen some 80–120 years ago.

Now, the exhibition has traveled to Bornholm and is being presented in a new setting at Hjorths Fabrik. Here, it enters into dialogue with the works of Hans Hjorth (1878–1966), who also worked with stoneware and belonged to the same artistic circle as Hansen Jacobsen. After countless attempts, Hans Hjorth succeeded in 1902 in producing his first successful pieces of stoneware, making him the first in Denmark to master the stoneware firing process.

Both Niels Hansen Jacobsen and Hans Hjorth were pioneers of stoneware at the turn of the 20th century – Hansen Jacobsen in Paris and Hjorth on Bornholm.