A significant role in this transformation was played by inspirations from trends in modern Japanese ceramics. These did not represent a unified style, but two distinct schools of thought. The first was the Mingei movement, which emphasized humility towards the material, functionality and beauty of folk crafts. The second was the avant-garde group Sōdeisha, whose members deliberately abandoned the utility of ceramic vessels and began to create non-utilitarian fired objects. Their work focused on direct, haptic contact with the clay and on emphasizing its physical properties rather than decoration.
Many of the artists featured in the exhibition turn to Japanese aesthetics and environments. For some, such as Elina Sorainen, Aisaku Suzuki, Michael Moore and Marie Bofill, this relationship stems from personal experience (whether academic or professional). For others, these elements appear more indirectly, as part of broader international trends. Although the exhibition includes seemingly unrelated works, the references to modern Japanese ceramics serve as sources of inspiration that allow us to read the emphasis on matter and process in ceramic creation. It is this reference to materiality, corporeality and the process of creation that represents one of the developmental lines of world modern ceramics that the Porta Ceramica exhibition follows.
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