’m Giulia Longhi, born and raised in Venice, Italy, I studied art, architecture and photography. A couple of years ago I followed a friend to a ceramic class and I fell in love with this material, as people say here: I got hooked!
Having a background as an architect, I like to exploit building processes, concepts and projects designs connected with human figure, time and space. The problem-solving part is what moves my research and generally it is what points me toward new ideas and experimentations.
Clay is a medium of freedom, its three-dimensionality allows ventured volumes for inventions. Working with clay is somehow observing an architectural project under the microscope. Principles stand, lines and curves are touched by the light that creates objects and where lines and curves cover the surfaces they create other fascinating realities to explore.
This medium is giving me a totally new prospective and some different answers to the real meaning of the phrases “Less is more” by architect Mies Van Der Rohe, and its oxymoronic “Less is a bore” by architect Robert Venturi. Phrases that drove me through all my students career path and that helped me grow as architect.
Ceramic’s smaller scale is allowing me to understand on a deeper level the ideas behind the thought of these great artists, granting me to grasp the soul of the personal research connected with the architectural thought.
My personal investigation in ceramics is focusing on ergonomic and practical aesthetic of functional products. Since as human being we all are limited editions of one, ceramics is leaving me with different 1:1 scale prototypes to compare in order to deliver some answers to the question “how many times can you solve a problem?”.
As of now, my works are always changing, as an internal drawing that is a mental prefiguration of something that has yet to come. In this peculiar phase, The Clay Studio is giving me the chance to be part of a welcoming and vibrant community, providing the space, the resources and the knowledge to achieve the best results my inquisitive mind can ask for.
