UCCA Announces Museum Devoted to Contemporary Ceramics

UCCA Clay will be the institution's fourth location when it opens in Yixing, a city in Jiangsu, China, in October.

China's UCCA Center for Contemporary Art has announced a new venture.

UCCA Clay will inhabit a 2,400-square-metre museum located on the site of the Number Two Yixing Ceramic Factory. Yixing is a city located two hours west of Shanghai that's well known for its long history of ceramics production.

UCCA Clay will present three exhibitions each year, which will be curated by the existing UCCA team.

'Through a rich mix of exhibitions and programs, we aim to foster new dialogues between the traditional and the contemporary, and between China and the wider world,' said UCCA Director and CEO Philip Tinari in a statement.

'We are confident that its location at the heart of a beautiful city with a rich artistic history, its innovative architecture, and its special focus on the ceramic medium will empower it to become a museum unlike any other,' he said.

Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the museum's façade is tiled with ceramic panels with varied textures and colour gradations that seem to shift when viewed from different angles and in different lighting conditions.

UCCA Clay joins the institution's constellation of existing art museums—UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, UCCA Dune in Beidaihe, and UCCA Edge in Shanghai.

The new museum will be operated in collaboration with Yixing Taodu Capital Management Co., Ltd., a state-owned enterprise that primarily invests in real estate development, urban renewal, and equities.

'With this new presence in Yixing, UCCA looks forward to cultivating new local, regional, national, and global audiences,' Tinari said. —[O]