The exhibition Educational workshops 2023 was created through the collaboration between the Korean Cultural Institute in Italy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and is the result of the creative experimentation carried out within the Paper Technology courses taught by Prof. Riccardo Ajossa and Prof. Matilde Guarnieri, who are the curators of the exhibition for the occasion.
As every year, the exhibition of end-of-semester artistic works is back, and we are renewing the fruitful collaboration between the two institutions as part of the increasingly consolidated bond.
The Paper Workshop of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome is the only one in Europe to have specialised in the production of Hanji and has been making it for more than seven years, attracting the attention of Italian and Korean institutions.
At the heart of the exhibition is the in-depth study of the technique for making traditional Korean paper as an essential condition for the participation of artists in training. All the students have learned and assimilated its production phases and have made it the focus of their research during the period they attended the course. They were free to experiment with everything they felt had expressive potential, unleashing their creative drive by using paper as a specific medium. They focused on the environmental sustainability of the production process and the closeness to nature, starting with the raw material directly extracted from the bark of the mulberry tree. From there, each experiment is visible in the exhibition in the form of an artistic work.
This year in particular, given the success of the workshop and its excellent reception by students enrolled at the Academy, the number of participants is higher than usual. The artists’ enthusiasm for the opportunity to learn the traditional Hanji paper-making technique prompted them to attend with great energy, experimenting with all the stages of the process, from cleaning the bark of the mulberry paper plant to forming the sheet with the traditional frame.
Communications Office of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome
Coordination: Prof. Guglielmo Gigliotti g.gigliotti@abaroma.it
Collaboration: Chiara Picco, Martina Macchia, Marianna Pontillo comunicazione@abaroma.it