Uli Aigner's One Million Handmade Porcelain Objects Project

Austrian artist Uli Aigner, born in 1965 and based in Berlin, has embarked on an ambitious project titled "One Million" (Un Milione), aiming to handcraft one million porcelain household items such as cups, bowls, and trays. Each piece is unique, marked with a scratched number before firing to ensure authenticity. Aigner, who studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Matteo Thun, calculates that working five days a week for thirty years will be needed to complete the cycle. The project challenges industrial robotization and embraces spontaneity and creativity. Aigner states, "I felt the desire to do something that would be forever! A counterproposal to the short-term, over-regulated culture of the art world." She was inspired by George Kubler's "The Shape of Time" (1962), which argues that every human-made object "has the necessity of its own time." Recently, Aigner presented a segment of the project in Vienna, and it will be shown in September at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. Pieces from "One Million" are available at shops including the Whitney Museum in New York, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin, and MAK in Vienna, with direct ordering options for private collectors and institutions. The project also resonates with themes in the exhibition "Dancing with Myself" at Punta della Dogana in Venice, which explores the artist's subjectivity and transformation.