Loredana Longo on Ceramics, Explosions, and the Fragility of Life

Italian artist Loredana Longo (born 1967 in Catania) discusses her recent turn to ceramics in an interview with Irene Biolchini. Longo's practice has long centered on the tension between construction and demolition, strength and fragility. Her signature series "Explosion," begun in the mid-2000s, involved detonating bourgeois household ceramics (plates, cups) and reassembling the fragments to reveal hidden fractures. In recent years, she has shifted focus from finished ceramic objects to intervening during the creation process, using fresh clay that captures the force of an explosion. She collaborates with technicians like Lorenzo Zanovello and Milan's Officine Saffi, but does not model clay herself, preferring to leave traces of action. Her series "Creative Execution" starts with anonymous vases that are detonated while wet, then glazed and fired. Works like "Piedediporco" (2017) destroy bricks—symbols of Sicilian property speculation—with blunt objects. Longo's practice also includes carpets with burned-in political slogans, velvet tapestries with burned war imagery, and the "Victory" series exploring transient triumphs. She describes her art as a permanent revolution using pop language, rooted in domestic objects and everyday life. The interview is part of Artribune's series "Gli artisti e la ceramica."