Welcome Innsbruck - Winter 2019

W E L C O M E 46 K U L T U R P O R C E L A I N B E A U T I E S When Andrea Baumann lifts the heavy lid of the circular ce- ramic kiln in which she fires her porcelain pieces at 800 de- grees Celsius, it is as if adventurers were opening a box filled with pieces of gold. There is a golden glow at the bottom of the cooled stove. Small and large bowls, oval bowls and cof- fee spoons, coal-black with a golden tinge. Andrea Baumann’s workshop is in an old farmhouse in the Starkenhof in Sistrans. Work is carried out on the ground floor and the upper floors are used for living. Their porcelain beauties - white, black and red vessels - adorn shelves, old sideboards and showcases. There is a potter’s wheel for light porcelain in the kitchen, workshop number one. In workshop number two, the former parlour with a large oven, is the potter’s wheel for the dark porcelain. A construction site drill is stuck in a bucket filled with porcelain mass. “Sludge” is the jargon used when porcelain and water are mixed. Born in Lohr, Bavaria, in 1961, Andrea graduated from the ceramics school in Landshut. While she worked for a ceramist in Freiburg, she travelled continuously and expanded her skills in various ceramics workshops. Finally, she took over the workshop in Freiburg and the shop was busy. It could have carried on like this, but in time the idea of “this can’t be all there is” became a certainty. Andrea took half a year off and went to Cameroon, where she learned the traditional way to build ceramics. At the end of that she took the entrance exam- ination for the Kiel University of Applied Sciences and began to study art ceramics. But soon it was not enough for her to limit herself to ceramics. She changed to “Experimental Painting” as her study course, where she enjoyed more artistic freedom. In 1996 she completed her education in Kiel. Andreas’s career as an artist went well. Again, it could have carried on like this, but the tight corset of the art market became too restricting for her. She only seemed to work from one show to another, from one exhibition to the next. Another time-out followed, this time in India. In 2003 she finally fell in love and it brought her to the Tyrol. The relationship broke down, but Andrea stayed put. Not only in Tyrol - but also in general in herself. Andrea Baumann processes around a ton of porcelain every year. She distributes her consumer ceramics internationally. Selected outlets in Berlin, London and Paris, on Majorca and in Italy, with whom she maintains close personal contact, carry her ceram- ics. A Chinese company offered Baumann the opportunity to produce her work there under her own name. She refused. The Belgian company Serax, which sells high-quality home designs, also knocked on the door. Baumann thinks it’s cool, but that would also mean handing over decisions. “I’m not that far yet,” says the ceramist, “I want to do my own things.”