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Pablo Seminario's fascination
for pre-Hispanic pottery stems dates back to Piura, his hometown.
"My interest in pre-Colombian pottery started when I was a child,"
Pablo remembers. "I remember the first day I saw a huaco (pre-Colombian
clay pot) in the main square in Piura, I was so impressed that from
then on I began to study pre-Colombian pottery every chance I could.
The years went by, and while I was studying architecture, I continued
to look around, visiting museums, looking for pre-Colombian pieces". |
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But his dedication to pottery came years later, when he had finished
studying in Lima and had settled in the city of Cuzco, where he
met Marilú and began working on small pieces of pottery which he
sold in the main square of the city. Then they moved together to
the Sacred Valley,
which was where they began to delve into the world of pre-Colombian
pottery, its different stages, techniques, and to discover the complexity
of the aesthetic elements of this "language", as they call
it.
"It is a language, and explained how they
lived, how they belonged to a place, how they represented their
world. The only thing we do is to use it again, to speak that language".
The Seminarios have figured out to provide
this ancient language with continuity, reusing its symbolic elements
and giving it space in the life of Man today: "I believe this
is a contribution to culture, because we are working with an element
of global culture, keeping alive an art form which shouldn't just
be kept locked up in museums".
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In his intense search, Pablo set about learning the philosophy
of clay, gleaning the wisdom of master potters. A great deal of
his patient work has involved researching folk art: "The artisans,
folk potters, came up with poetic descriptions such as that the
clay is the flesh of the body, and that the mixture of the clay
can include crushed stone or sand is the bones of the body",
Pablo says. "If you want to make a tall or large figure that
has to have good bones. That means you have to mix in a large amount
of crushed stone or sand as ingredients, because you can't just
make a piece from the meat, as otherwise it will just collapse.
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| While I was talking to these artisans,
I understood things, I understood that the clay has its own intrinsic
worth, that this clay allows you to do something, it permits you to
make a cooking pot and another type of clay enables you to make a
cooking pot easily, because you're going to be able to cook with that
clay. If with the ´other´ clay you make a pot, but a great
deal of effort, because you ´want´ to make it, and the
clay is against you, but you do it because it can be done. You cook
the pot, and it shatters, because its intrinsic value is no good for
cooking"." |
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This is why the search for traditional
pre-Colombian techniques drove them to search in the mud, in the earth,
to hunt for clay in the hills, ever following in the footsteps of
the ancient pre-Colombian potters. In this valley, the couple started
a long stage of experimenting with clay from the area, recognizing
the various types and studying their qualities: "This is local
clay. We recognize all its defects, but we feel it has more virtues
than defects. Potters have told me that we work with the worst clay
of all, but there is no best or worst. It's just what you know". |
Shades of pre-Colombian
pottery
Shapes and portrayals
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