KOREAN potter Park Byeong Jo gave a week-long pottery workshop at the Al-Fustat Traditional Crafts Centre. Organised by the Korean Cultural Centre in Cairo in collaboration with the Cultural Development Fund, the event culminated in a seminar that brough together Park Jae Yang – Director of the Korean Cultural Centre, Ahmed Awwad – Chairman of Cultural Development Fund, Fathy Abdel-Wahab – Director of Al-Fustat Centre and George Noubar – Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts at Helwan University. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce Korean pottery and exchange expertise with Egyptian potters. “The workshop contributed to exchanging experiences through training in Korean technology with Egyptian materials,” Abdel-Wahab said, praising the Korean Cultural Centre, “which will eventually enrich artistic exchange between the two countries.” Park Jae Yang stressed the similarities in the pottery tradition between South Korea and Egypt in terms of materials, techniques and decorations. He pointed out that the Arab traders during the era of the Silla and Koryo Kingdoms highly appreciated Korean porcelain and ginseng. Park Pyeong-Jo, for his part, gave a presentation on the stages of the Korean process. He noted that Korean potters have developed the porcelain industry through advanced embedded techniques and distinctive blue colour of Korean celadon: “The term celadon is thought to derive from the name of the hero in a 17th-century French pastoral comedy. The colour which the character Céladon's robe evoked in the minds of Europeans reflected the distinctive green-glazed ceramics of China, where celadon originated. Yet the ambiguity of the term captures the myriad hues of green and blue of this ceramic type. Celadon represents a major technological and conceptual shift in the history of Korean ceramics…” Park Pyeong-Jo explained defining the characteristics of the carving decorations for white and red silt and the delicate technique of sanggam, which involves etching the desired motifs on the dry clay body and filling in the grooves space with black or white slip, after which a translucent glaze is applied and the vessel fired. The pottery of ancient Korea stretches back to prehistory when simple brown wares were made and decorated with geometrical incisions. Initially, the Korean wares were rather crude, but by the 12th century Korean celadon ceramics were even finer than those produced in China. The esteem in which celadons were held is attested by their presence in royal Korean tombs. But with the Mongol invasions of the peninsula and the systematic destruction of workshops in the 13th century production of celadons stopped. Ceramics are innovative in design and range from impossibly intricate incense burners to the sublime simplicity and elegance of the maebyeong vase. “Korean pottery decoration typically employs plants, flowers, and wildlife, and reflects the country's religious heritage with Buddhist motifs and minimalist Confucian designs taking precedence,” Byeong-Jo clarified. A graduate of the Industrial Design Department of Honam University, Byeong-Jo is currently a part-time lecturer at Chilkang Elementary School and at Jeonnam Life Science High School and a member of Gangjin Celadon Cooperation. He has received numerous awards in Korea.
