Eduard Boleda Farré

Phone: +34 973347090

Why ceramics

Well, ceramics is a fact here in Verdú. It's being from Verdú, and living ceramics is like a whole for me. And I have always seen it here in Verdú, then my father also made ceramics with tiles and painted and it has always been part of my life.

And my sister also did ceramics at the Massana school and she also does ceramics and so she has been part of it. And for me it was... It started when I got married. And I saw a painting I had of ceramics and I said to my wife, I'm going to do that too. And I ordered clay up here, I made the painting, they baked it for me and everything was like very fluid, something fluid and then an extension of what I already do which is music and so on.

It has been something that has come very fluidly with me, I have never gone to any school or anything, by instructions from ceramists who said, do it this way, do it that way and it has been a very fluid thing.

Influences

Follow the advice of potters. Then also, once we followed some advice from a cousin of mine, who is a great painter, who is called Magí Puig, and when he saw the style that I am now doing, he told me, now yes, because until before he was doing another style and he said to me, bueno, bueno and when he saw this style it was, now yes.

This style also, it started with something that, there was a doll that they used to do commercials on TV called Fido Dido, something, a tall and thin drawing, and first I made the figures following that. Then there is a sculptor whose name I can't remember now, Modigliani you can, so he makes some tall and thin sculptures, he also came up with it, and then when I make them big I also sometimes think of Botero, who he made all big figures.

But hey, it's quite an eclectic thing, all the influences I've had. But so I pretty much followed the advice given to me by my cousin who told me, now yes, because until then I saw the figures he was doing and said, well yes, too, but he told me, now yes, then , because they have like a seal, everyone must have a seal, the towns must have a seal, and to say, Verdú, Verdú ceramics and, for example, wine, and it is important to have a personality.

The ceramist in contemporary society

Every time I think it is smaller. Me, because I'm the first one who... before I even remember that we used to go there and be able to buy some ceramic plate; I remember going to Tunisia to buy dishes, and we had bought some and now I can't think of buying ceramics, can I? And then, as a decorative thing maybe yes, but you think maybe before a painting or something like that, than with ceramics, and then as a utilitarian thing, then nothing.

And this is also what the potters here exclaim, that there is not much of a future, that's what it seems to me.

Future of ceramics

Well my future ceramist, I hope to have a good time, I'm having a good time. A long time ago I was told, if you want your figures we can put them here in this shop and so on.

And I don't like it, because I like more to see people who come to the house, then I can talk to people and so... It's a way of interrelating with people. For example, some who did the Camino de San Ignatius came and a woman from California came and bought me 7 or 8 figures. Enchanted then we were chatting and there is still a bit of a relationship.

And so with people who come from outside, so I make a relationship and I explain to them what I do, like those of us who do the concerts I do as a musician and so on. And I like this relationship I like the music stuff or that because of the relationship I can make with it and the future I hope for, well that's it, having fun, I don't know if... the future of ceramics in general, the future, well, I see it black, huh?

Like ceramics. No, but I mean, it's more like residual, before it was like something more everyday, and now the only future I see is that if the ceramists from here in Verdú make their own ceramic stamp and make in addition, they were not only dedicated to selling ceramics, but to do the whole explanation and make it like an activity for the people who come, to say, well, let's see how they go, let's see how this and everything, everything as a whole