Unurgent Argilla is a vocabulary of foraged soils,
a study of what is with us,
repeated on a spherical vessel, a canvas to convey a spatial narrative.
Each vase is - is made of - is made for a specific place.
Each vase reveals a place within the practice of ceramics.
Each place is not any place.

The method of re-search, emotional classification and material study of different clays and non-plastic rocks roots itself partly in the science, in the poetry and in the politics of soil and land. The eccentricity and unfamiliarity of certain clays, but also the quiet commonness of others, makes this exercise fascinating, complex and contradictive, often going outside the boundaries of what’s expected, imagined and linear.

I forage mostly in places I have a relationship with:
each vessel becomes a signpost and a sort of autobiographical archival memory,
juxtaposing sculpture and remembrance on the map.
Although focused on the material, my work is rigidly shaped:
I entrust much of my narration to repetition and I am interested in the gestures behind making a sphere in ceramics.

Solo exhibitions

Unurgent Argilla, Officine Saffi, Milano, Italy, March-June 2023

Portrait to the island: melting a rock, Site-specific installation for Isola Bisentina, Capodimonte, Italy, 20 June 2023 - 5 November 2023

Unurgent Argilla, Poesis Gallery, 17th International biennial of contemporary ceramics, PCC, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2022

Museums acquisitions

Musée Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland

Museo Isola Bisentina, Capodimonte, Italy

Selected Group exhibitions

Of the Earth, Messums West, Tisbury, UK, 2 March - 29 April 2024

Argilos, Carwan Gallery & Fondazione Officine Saffi, Athens, Greece, 22 September-11 November 2023

Collect, London, UK, March 2023

Caminos Creativos, Gaiás Centre Museum, Santiago, Spain, November 2022-April 2023

The Wild Collective, Thrown Contemporary and OmVed Gardens, London, UK, May 2022

Nature Inspired, Through Objects, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2021-January 2022

Wild bowls, Spiazzi, Venezia, Italy, March 2022

European Ceramic Festival “Terralha”, Saint- Quentin-la-Poterie, France, July 2022

Fire and light, Thrown Contemporary, London, UK, April 2021

Isola Design Festival Milano, Italy, April-September 2021

Materialised, Spazio Gamma, Milano, Italy, September 2021

Colmo, Padova, Italy, October 2021

Winter collection, Thrown Contemporary Gallery, London, UK, December 2020

Gatherers, OmVed Gardens and Thrown Contemporary Gallery, London, UK, May-June 2020

Selected publications

Book, “Unurgent Argilla”, published by Fondazione Officine Saffi on the occasion of the exhibition "Unurgent Argilla", texts by Raffaella Ausenda, Laura Borghi, Alberto De Bonis, Marta Equi Pierazzini, Nina Salsotto Cassina, 2023

Feature in “222. Artisti emergenti su cui investire 2024”, by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, published by Exibart 2023

Feature in Crafts Magazine, “Down to Earth” by Isabella Smith, Spring/Summer 2023 issue

Feature in Interni Magazine, “Material Re-evolution”, April 2023

Feature in Grazia, “Segnali forti”, n.18, 13 April 2023

Feature in “Wild Clay : Creating Ceramics and Glazes from Natural and Found Resources” by Matt Levy, Takuro Shibata, Hitomi Shibata, Herbert Press, 2022

Interview for Triennale di Milano Magazine “Vocabolario terra. La ricerca di Nina Salsotto Cassina”, by Marilia Pederbelli

Profile article, Issue 310, Ceramic Review “Into The Wild” by Natalie Baerselman Le Gros, July-August 2021

Profile article, “Connected by clay”, Sentimental Journal 04. CERAMICS, Amsterdam, August 2021

Feature, “Nel magico mondo della ceramica”, Io Donna, Corriere della sera, 28 Agosto 2021

Feature, Emerging Potters Magazine, Issue 19, July-September 2020, York, Regno Unito

Research projects

Glaze research from materials gathered inside the Triennale di Milano gardens, realization of the awards for the 23rd International Exhibition Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries, Triennale di Milano, 2022

Research project and group show, Translocal Pottery, Helsinki, Finland, 2021/22

Research and realisation of a collection of objects with local Runcorn red clay, for Hall McKnight, RIBA Design Competition - A Vision of the Future for The Heath Business & Technical Park, Runcorn, UK, 2020

Conferences and lectures

2023 - Conference and book launch, Officine Saffi, Milano, Italy

2023 - Conference for ADI design day, Hamburg, Germany

2022 - Guest speaker’s talk for the Cultural mediation course, Università Bocconi, Milano, Italy

2021 - Guest speaker’s talk for Designers for Lunch, Isola Design District, Milano, Italy

2020 - Wild clay walk and talk, with Thrown contemporary gallery and OmVed gardens, London, UK

Workshops

Wild clay workshops, online and Milano, 2020-ongoing

Wild clay and pit firing workshops, with Cantieri Creativi, Rome, 2022-ongoing

Wild clay workshop, Officine Saffi, Milano, May 2023.

Residencies

Kiln building and local geology residency at Anja Slapničar studio with the Zhunan Snake kiln team, Novo Mesto, Slovenia, Oct 2023.