1953年生于挪威

2018-2024年 任联合国教科文组织国际陶艺学会(IAC)主席

2014-2020年 任联合国教科文组织国际陶艺学会(IAC)副会长

2005-2014年 任联合国教科文组织国际陶艺学会(IAC)理事

2000-2008年 瑞典斯德哥尔摩Konstfack大学陶艺与玻璃系教授兼系主任

1996-2000年 瑞典哥德堡大学陶艺系教授兼系主任

1990年    联合国教科文组织国际陶艺学会(IAC)会员

1978年      挪威工艺美术协会会员

托比恩·卡瓦斯博在陶溪川国际工作室驻场

Torbjørn Kvasbø is working at Taoxichuan International Studio

1，您在世界陶艺界享有盛名，我们都不需要过多介绍您，欢迎再次来到景德镇！您这次来陶溪川驻场创作有什么感想？

You are one of the most well-known ceramic artists in the world, we don't even need to introduce you to our readers. Welcome to Jingdezhen again! How do you feel about revisiting Taoxichuan this time?

因为我以前来过景德镇好几次，感觉就像回家一样。我熟悉这儿，这里有很多来自中国和世界各地的好友和同行。陶溪川艺术中心邀请我做几个星期的驻场，他们尽其所能为我提供高效的工作保障，让我在尽可能短的时间内尽可能快地完成工作。这很棒。

Since I have been to Jingdezhen several times before, it feels like come home. Because I know places and I have many good friends and collogues here from China and the rest of the world. Taoxichuan Art Center has invited me to do residency for several weeks, they do what they can do to provide for me to have an efficient works day, I work as fast as possible in short time as possible. It’s very nice.

2，您从70年代开始创作实用性器皿，90年代创作抽象的器物形体，再到2009年开始创作管道造型的《Stack》和花瓶造型的《Cluster of vases》，看上去像是对实用性器皿造型的回归，但又脱离了实用性，是什么让您的创作产生这样的转变？

In the 1970s, you started to make practical vessels, in the 1990s you made abstract objects, and you made pipe shape Stack and vase shape Cluster of vases in 2009, which seem to be a return to the practical vessels but not focus on the practicability at all. What made your artworks take such a change?

变化从来都慢慢发生的，每天随着工作悄无声息地改变。我们这一代的陶艺家曾被当作创作实用器皿的陶工来训练，这是我的专业背景，所以我这辈子做了很多实用性的作品。但是当你去实验，看到新的东西，一天一天地进步，事物就慢慢随着时间的推移而演化。

The change is never fast, it was like seamless change day to day slowly with work. My generation of ceramic artists were trained as potters to make functional art, that is my background. So, I'm a good thrower. I made a lot of functional works in my life. But slowly, you experiment, you see new things and get further day by day slowly, things evolve over time.

如果你有一个更大的工作室或窑炉，创作也会随之改变，你逐渐有能力扩大活动范围，能创作大型作品。一般来说，你会在生活和工作室的框架内做尽可能大规模的作品。我选择改变其实还有一个故事。说真的，我当了12年的教授，这些年一直坚持做创作、做展览、做全职教授，我太累了。2008年，我辞去教授职务，真的不想再过那种生活了。我回归家庭，花了很长时间才从这12年教授生涯的疲惫中缓过来。因为拉坯造成的背部疼痛，导致我再也不能再用拉坯的方法做创作，我需要找到一个可以快速成型的工作方式。于是有了挂在墙上的挤泥器，它是一个带手柄的挤泥器，正是这个工具让我开始尝试做管道造型，然后我有了一个可以让我同拉坯一样快速成型的创作方式。

And it also changes with studios if you get a larger studio or kilns, then you gradually can afford to expand your activity, your works were also got larger. You usually make it as large as possible within the frames that you have in your life or in your studio. My choice to change is more as another story. Really. I have been a professor for 12 years, making my artwork, exhibiting, also full-time professorship. And I got really tired. In 2008, I quitted as professor, I didn't want to have that kind of life anymore. I went home and I needed a long time to recover from these 12 hard years of professorship. I could not work on the wheel anymore, because the wheel is too hard on the back of your body. I needed to find a system where I could produce something very fast. And it is like the one you see on the wall over there, it’s just a handle press. It was the tool I started experiment with to make tubes. Suddenly I had an organ that I could work with almost the same on the wheel and I could work with very fast.

直到现在我依然用管道作为造型语言来创作，并且作品规模在不断膨胀。管道对我来说是连接传统陶艺的通道，这让我感到愉悦。同时，我作品中的大型生产和批量复制也与传统陶艺相关，当你不断重复做一件事，熟能生巧。做管道也是这样，当你不断用管道来创作时，你的大脑会慢慢产生新的想法，事情就在日常中发生变化。

And then until now, I'm still working with tubes and it's still expanding and expanding. The tube is also a vessel connects the tradition of pottery, which pleases me. Also, the mass production and repetition, which has so much to do with pottery. You do things over and over again, and you get better and better. That is also the same method with the tubes, you do the same over and over again, your brain slowly comes up with ideas that things move all the time every day.

昨天做的事情成为我今天的继续，也将成为明天的继续。管道是我们赖以存在的强大形式，没有管道就没有生命，一切生命都需要通过管道获取能量。你的身体充满了管道，植物、树木也充满了管道，这是生命的强烈隐喻。这么多器官的多层堆叠，就像思想和映射的源泉。我的作品《堆》把管道堆叠起来是给生命以秩序的一种方式。你看，我的生活充满了各种器官，我早上起床，晚上睡觉，我们有白天，我们有光，还有季节。一切都在重复，这些都是生命的器官，生命就是一个大器官。每个人都是一个重复的器官，这是我们的大脑组织记忆的方式。这关乎于生命。

What I did yesterday become what I work with today and like what I continue to work with tomorrow. The tube is a strong form in our existence, without tube, there will be no life. Everything needs energy and gets energy through the tubes. Your body is full of tubes, the plants, the trees are full of tubes. It's a strong metaphor of life. So many organs, layers, is a source of lots of thoughts and reflections. Stacking up like this is also a way of organizing your life. You see, my life is full of organs. I get up in the morning. I go to bed in the evening. We have day, we have light, we have seasons. Everything is a repetition, and there are all organs of life, life is a big organ. For everyone, we are repeated organs. And this is the way our brain is organized to remember. It's about life.

3，把作品的尺寸扩大到您能够做到的极限，这是否表现了一种身体与材料之间的力量对抗？

By expanding the size of your work to the limit of what you can do, does it represent a kind of force confrontation between body and material?

对我来说，用粘土创作是体力劳动，我喜欢站着创作，然后走动着观察，当我走动时可以更好地思考和表达。作品尺寸的大小和身体不无关系，这不仅关乎于大脑，也关乎于心灵、双手以及个体的创作实践。对我来说，创作一个等身大小的作品是自然而然的事情。

For me, to work with clay is very physical, I like to stand up to work and look around, I think and talk much better when I walk. It is not true that the size of your work and your body has no relationship, it’s not only for the brain, but also for your heart, your hands, your solo practice, for me, it’s very natural to have a body size to work with. This is just how it happens.

4，您与陶瓷材料的对话方式是否受到挪威传统文化的影响？

Is your dialogue with ceramic materials influenced by Norwegian traditional culture?

是的，影响很多。童年时，我的成长伴随着各种形状，比如房子、箱子、盒子。当我还是个躺在地上的婴儿，首先看到的是一个旧的大木箱家具。我与这些视觉形式有紧密的关联，因为这是我的日常用品，所以我一直用这种形式作为创作语言，我理解这些形式，用它们作为表达自我的工具。我一直在研究房屋、箱子、棺材所有这些古老的原型，造型上它们是普通的，但从我老家的传统民间艺术中我对它们有深入的理解，这些都关于我的文化。

Yes, a lot. I grew up with archetypes of shapes in my childhood, like house, chest, the box. The first thing I saw when I was baby laying on floors is an old big wooden boxes furniture. I have a stronger relationship with these forms, this is what I use, and I have been using it a lot as my language because I understand these forms. And I can use them as a kind of tool for telling something. I've been working with houses, chest, coffin all these old archetypal forms which actually is universal, but I know them very well from my folk-art tradition. It’s about my culture.

5，能否谈谈您在景德镇的创作计划？是否会举办讲座或展览？

Could you talk about your plan in Jingdezhen? Will you hold lecture or solo exhibition here?

2019年，我受邀于2020年春季在陶溪川举办个展，但后来疫情封城，个展推迟到两年后的现在。终于，我们能来完成这件事。我来景德镇是为了准备这次在陶溪川美术馆举办的个展，将在4月23日开幕，就在几天后。这些作品都是为个展创作的，如果不出问题的话。我已经烧过一窑了，效果不错。不过我也从挪威运来了很多雕塑，会用卡车从北京运过来，希望作品能安全抵达，因为这是个1,500平方米的作品，将是一个大型展览。对我来说这是一次有趣的尝试，我一直想精进，利用这次机会来挑战一下创作的极限，我觉得我们可以做出很好的作品。在陶溪川有非常棒的策展团队，他们为我做了很多铺垫工作，我觉得这次个展会很精彩，十分期待。

In 2019, I was invited to have a solo exhibition in Taoxichuan in Spring of 2020. But then came pandemic lock down, it has been postponed until 2 years later now. Finally, it is possible to do it. I am here now to prepare for a solo exhibition in Taoxichuan Art Museum, which is opening on April 23rd, just a few days from now. These works are all prepare for exhibition if they are working fine. I have already had one fire and they seemed pretty good. But I do have shipped over many sculptures from Norway. They will be here from Beijing by truck. I hope it’s safe because it’s 1,500 square meters. It's going to be a big exhibition. For me, it’s an interesting experiment to do this, I always want to learn. This is a challenge to see what we can do here. And I think we can do something very good. I have a very good curator team in Taoxichuan. They're preparing a lot. I think it’s going to be good. I'm looking forward.

6，您不仅是艺术家，也是教育者、策展人、评委、iac主席、主持国际会议、举办研讨会和workshop，同时每年还创作高质量的作品，是什么让您保持如此强大的行动能力？

You are not only an artist, but also an educator, curator, jury, president of IAC, you hosted international conferences, run symposiums and workshops, while also make quality artworks every year, what gives you such capacity of action and multitask?

我对这些工作很感兴趣，通过粘土表达自己让我从不感到厌倦。与此同时，我也意识到自己这一生真的很幸运，可以通过创作谋生。年轻的时候作为初出茅庐的学生，有很多同行帮助过我，前辈们敦促我前进，给我机会同他们一起工作、做展览，他们还邀请我与他们一起旅行，这对我的个人发展来说都是非常重要的。所以我也想回馈给我的同行们，我一生都致力于这件事，因为当你身边的同行都发展得更好，你才有机会成长为更好的自己。

I'm very interested in this work, and express myself through clay, I never get tired of working with clay. But also, I realized that I have been really lucky in my life about what I do, I can make a living. But it’s also because of many colleagues of mine helped me when I was young, as student that newly established. My older colleagues pushed me, gave me chances to work and to exhibit with them, they invited me to travel, this has been a very important part of my own development. And I want to do the same for my colleagues. I've been doing that all my life because you'd better make colleagues around you better, then you have a chance to grow better to yourself.

7，您一直在促进陶瓷艺术的国际交流，做了很多工作，您也是“瓷的精神——景德镇国际陶瓷艺术双年展”的策展人之一，您认为国际交流的意义有哪些？

You are one of the curators of the "The Spirit of Porcelain – 2021 Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale". You have been promoting the international exchange of ceramic art and have done a lot of remarkable work. What do you think is the significance of international exchange of ceramic art?

你必须多看多学。陶瓷文化是一个复杂的历程。用粘土做出东西很容易，但用粘土做出重要的东西却不容易。你必须终其一生努力学习，努力变得更好，与同行一起创作并向他们学习，交流是陶瓷文化中非常重要的一部分。而陶艺家正好拥有世界上最大的视觉艺术国际关系网，我们得跨越国界，因为我们的同行来自世界各地，我们做着同样的创作工作，我们面临同样的问题和经历。如果没有交流就没有发展。

You have to see and to learn. Ceramic cultures are a complicated process. It is very easy to make something in clay, but it is not easy to make something important in clay. You have to spend the whole life trying to learn, to be better, to work together with colleagues and learn from them, it's a very important part of ceramic culture. And ceramic artists have the largest visual art network in the world, we need across borders, because our colleagues are from all over the world, we do the same thing, we have same problems and experiences, there is no develop if we don't exchange.

8，据悉，景德镇陶瓷大学将与国际陶艺学会和美国阿尔弗雷德大学美术馆一同建立国际陶瓷教育联盟，联盟将展开哪些方面的工作？这一尝试在世界陶瓷教育会产生怎样的效应？

Jingdezhen Ceramic University will establish the International Ceramic Education Alliance with the International Academy of Ceramics and Art Museum of Alfred University. What aspects of work will the alliance undertake? What effects will it attempt have on ceramic education in the world?

首先，这个联盟是一个意向性协议。在正式实施之前，我们尝试建立一个大学之间学术层面的合作与发展平台，试图在全世界的大学中建立起一个更大的网络，让彼此可以一起工作、交流、做研究和驻留项目，我们也可以交换教师、教授和研究人员。景德镇陶瓷大学正试图建立一个可以启动的实体平台，希望这个教育联盟成为我们为未来发展提供的一个起点。

First of all, this alliance is an intention agreement. Before we go into project, it is an attempt to establish a platform for cooperation and development on academic level between universities. We try to establish a larger network within universities around the world, that we can work, exchange, do research and residency programs together, we can also exchange teachers, professors, researchers. The leadership, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, is trying to establish a physical platform that they can start on, this educational alliance is the first start that we hope will provide for the development in the future.

9，国际陶艺学会（IAC）作为陶艺界最具有权威性和国际性的组织，中国陶艺家和艺术机构加入IAC需要怎样的条件？IAC又能为艺术家或者艺术机构提供什么服务？

IAC is the most authoritative and international organization in the world. What are the requirements for Chinese ceramic artists and organizations who apply for IAC membership? and what services will IAC provide for them? 

你必须创新，这是唯一的标准。我们不提供服务，我们提供关系网，但你必须自己活跃在关系网中。我们不问IAC能为我做什么，我们问我能为IAC做什么，这是非常不同的视角。

For example, you have to be innovative, that's the only criteria actually. We don't provide services, we provide a network, but you have to be active in the networks yourself. We don't ask what IAC can do for me, we ask what I can do for IAC, that's a very different perspective.

10，作为资深的陶瓷艺术教育者，能否给中国的年轻陶艺家一些建议？

As a senior ceramic art educator, could you give some advice to young Chinese ceramic artists?

别完全相信你的老师，相信你自己。

Don't believe your teachers, believe yourself.

11, 您还有什么想与读者分享的吗？

What else do you want to share with us?

我是IAC（国际陶艺学会）的现任主席，每位IAC的工作人员都是志愿的，没有报酬。我们花了很多时间试图帮助世界各地的同行加入这个网络，这个网络可以帮助他们拓展，给他们机会去旅行、参加展览、做驻场、打开眼界、脱颖而出并被公众关注。要成为IAC的会员并不容易，很多艺术家成为IAC会员后都很自豪，他们在国际交流方面将得到评审的评定，比如你为同行做过什么贡献? 你是否够国际化？这是IAC成员非常重要的价值。我们现在有来自77个国家和地区的近1000名会员。我们非常积极地从世界上暂无会员的地区吸纳艺术家，像俄罗斯的部分地区、东亚、非洲的大部分地区，我们努力在这些地区寻找有创新能力的陶艺家，以及能给当地带来变化的相关从业人员。IAC与联合国教科文组织关系密切，我们的工作是建立一个关于和平的网络，无论是什么样的生活方式或政治制度都不重要。我们与政治绝对无关。

Now I am current president of IAC, everyone works for IAC is volunteer, it is not paid. We spend a lot of time trying to provide and help colleagues over the world to come into a network that can help them to expand and give them opportunities to travel, to exhibit, to do residences, to see a lot and to come out of the public be seen by others. It is difficult to be IAC member and most people are proud when they get IAC membership because you were criticized on jury for international activity. Do you do something for your colleagues? Do you involve being international? This is very important values of IAC members. We now have almost 1,000 members from more than 77 countries and continents. We recruit people very actively from many parts of the world that is not represented. Like parts of Russia, East Asia, there are large parts in Africa where we actively get in and search for innovative ceramic artists or practitioners that can be make a difference where they live. We are very close to the UNESCO; our work is basically to establish a network about peace. No matter what kind of life or political system, it doesn’t matter. It's absolutely no political.

12, #陶艺家的期待

我们发起了#陶艺家的期待#这个标签，希望由您来推荐一位艺术家作为我们下一位采访对象。

#Expectations of Ceramists

We started # Expectations of Ceramists# on social media, we sincerely hope you recommend us an artist as our next interviewer.

你们可以去采访格雷森·佩里，他真的非常杰出，非常重要。

You should try Grayson Perry, his is really good and important.

戚振宇，余晖，托比恩·卡瓦斯博，陈恩泽

Zhenyu Qi, Sophia Yu, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Ben Chen