Clay Of The Land

A new brand unearths the creative potential of soil from Japan’s Mino region

- Danielle Demetriou

A fragment of tree trunk conserved in the earth for a million years; abstract photography of the dissected layers of a quarry; ceramic spheres from a factory; and a mound of raw clay. These are some of the items showcased in a new exhibition, ‘Archeology of Mino, in collaboration with Studio Mumbai’, which casts a contemporary light on one of Japan’s most treasured materials: clay. Curated by Swiss designer David Glaettli (creative director of Karimoku New Standard and Tajimi Custom Tiles) and Indian architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai, the exhibition, showing at 441 in Tokyo, taps into the creative potential and ‘brutal beauty’ of soil from the Mino region of Gifu Prefecture, famed for a rich ceramics heritage meandering back 1,300 years.