Chamotte sculpture park

Chamotte sculpture park

In 2013, a new tradition began in Jelgava – the first symposium of large-format chamotte sculptures was held under the leadership of the artistic director Aleksandrs Djacenko. Chamotte sculptures are created from a particularly heat-resistant material, in which clay is mixed with fine burnt clay particles. Since 2014, the symposium of chamotte sculptures in Jelgava has taken on an international dimension.

The artistic level of the symposium and its continuation in the following years were determined by the participation of an international level ceramist Peteris Martinsons. Besides him, talented and well-known ceramists from Jelgava also participated – Aleksandrs Djacenko, Marite Djacenko and Ilze Emse-Grinberga. The theme was free, at the discretion of the artists. For 10 days on specially built chamotte brick kilns, artists created the conceived images from the chamotte of Jelgava enterprise Latvijas Keramika. At the end of the symposium, the sculptures were fired at the temperature of 1100 degrees.

There are more than 20 chamotte sculptures in the Chamotte Sculpture Park on Island Pasta, images of which represent various themes. Each year, themes are different:

Cinema (2014), City for Growth (2015), Solstice (2016), Day of the Balts (2018), Ancient World (2019), Fire of the Balts (2020).

In turn, the ceramist Peteris Martinsons’ sculpture Shelter of the Dream Crows can be seen in Jelgava Art School, the sculpture Cone created by the ceramist Ilze Emse-Grinberga found its home on the territory of the Forestry Faculty of the LAU.