Ceramic Fairy-Tale Motifs in the Community Garden

The Clay Day – The Magic of Clay project aims to bring ceramics and porcelain into everyday life. This is an opportunity for the town of Modra to present, in a public space, the form of cultural heritage which has made it famous both within Slovakia and abroad. Local ceramic specialists are leaving their unique signatures on tiles decorated with fairy-tale motifs which are then displayed in the publicly accessible Community Garden. In the busy center of the town, this is a beautifully peaceful area for families, children's groups and tourists.

The first ceramic tiles, depicting the tales of The Twelve Months, Hansel and Gretel, The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, were placed in the garden in 2017. Three new motifs - Long, Broad and Sharp-sight, Gold Yarn and Popolvár are set to enrich the space of the Community Garden in the summer months of 2021. Their originators are the master potters Ján Viglaš, Igor Mesík and Marián Liška.

The knight Popolvár on a golden steed, who tries to win the hand of the princess, has been created in the Modra workshop of Marián Liška. The Golden Yarn with Maťko Klingáčik from the hands of Igor Mesík conceals a number of references to the tradition of the majolica from Modra. The tiles with the story of Long, Broad and Sharp-sight catches the three friends wandering around the world. They were painted by the master Ján Viglaš so that their colors add a vital flourish to the atmosphere of the Community Garden.

The creation and installation of these ceramic elements with a value of some EUR 3,000 as part of the project entitled "Clay Day – The Magic of Clay" has been made possible thanks to a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway amounting to EUR 199,900 through EEA grants. The project has been co-financed with EUR 29,985 from the state budget of the Slovak Republic. The principal project beneficiary is the Slovak National Museum – Ľudovít Štúr Museum in Modra, with partners the Telemark Museum of Norway and the town of Modra.

Other elements of the project include upcoming exhibitions as well as their exchange among museums, a new exhibition in the defensive bastion in Modra, a symposium for artists, a design manual for the historic center, a laser performance and a professional workshop the output of which will be a collated series of papers.

To learn more about the programs and projects funded by EEA Grants in Slovakia visit www.eeagrants.sk

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