- 2026 participant Common Ground, a world in ceramics, Terra 40! Old Church Delft
With Keka Ruiz as a connector, we make contact with her ancestors, the inhabitants of the Andes.
She wants them to resonate in her small ceramic sculptures. Each figure or fragments thereof bear the traces of alchemical processes: waxing, darkening, cracking. You can see from the earthy painterliness that Ruiz is a painter by training.
As a Chilean, Ruiz experiences a vital primal energy, called Kamaquen, which "ensures the reproduction of species." In this way, future, present, and past continuously merge into each other.
Beneath the (clay) skin, we are at the same time our own ancestors. Every stone carries our memory; we planted all the grain ourselves. Apart from this Andean cosmogenic mysticism, Ruiz’s figures are also convincing as autonomous works.
'Unfortunately, the clay in Chile is not strong enough to work with. That is why I use Vicente Diaz CH clay with chamotte. From Spain. It is very strong and at the same time soft to work with.'
