Svetlana Berdnikova

I treat ceramics very personally and reverently



Born in the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva. Graduated from the engineering college in the city of Aleksandrovsk. Co-organizer of the landscape festival «Terracotta on Vilva», ceramist, master of pottery «Artel». The teacher of additional education, teaches children ceramics.

Quotes:

  • Vsevolodo-Vilva is my homeland, my inspiration. You sit on the hill, look into the distance, breathe the air — and you are full of energy again.
  • I love everything that you can do with your hands: in this, you can express yourself as much as possible.
  • I have a loud voice, but I don't like it when people scream.
  • For a good thing, you need to concentrate well.
  • I love the book «The Blind Musician» by Korolenko, and now and then I recall the plots of this narrative.
  • Ceramics is a meditation. When you sculpt, you are in touch with yourself.

My story

I was born in Vsevolodo-Vilva, like my parents did. My family didn't have much to do with creativity, but brother of my grandfather drew very well: I found his watercolors of Vilva landscapes in the attic, and each time they amazed me with their beauty and vast.

I was always attracted to creativity: from childhood I sculpted, my mother bought me plasticine in boxes, and the house was full of all kinds of frogs, dogs, and cats. Like any child, I always wanted to do something with my own hands.

The first art residence in Vsevolodo-Vilva, organized by the Yuryatin Foundation, was held in 2010. Before it, the organizers explored our territory, found out that there are quarries with high-quality white clay — practically pure kaolin. Then they found interested people among the village population and taught them how to work with clay. Among these people was me, who was then in search of my own mission.

In 2011, a year after the art residence, the first festival «Terracotta on Vilva» was held. In the same year, Vsevolodo-Vilva received the status of the Center of Culture of the Perm Territory. In the summer of 2018, the festival was held for the eighth time. Terracotta unites craftsmen working with natural materials, but in different techniques. We announce a competition, ceramists send their work, and we choose the most interesting and unusual ones. Masters learn from each other; we, as masters, also talk about our techniques and discoveries. Two weeks of the festival are held in a friendly and truly creative atmosphere.

The themes of «Terracotta» are always different, but, one way or another, they boil down to the primary elements of life: «Light», «Structure of Space», «Sound»... Artists arrive at the festival without their works and gradually come up with an idea and their own project. At the same time, we hold master classes for adults and children: sometimes, in the morning you come to the tents, and there is already a crowd of people, and everyone is already doing something, painting, modeling... On the final day of the festival, an exhibition of the resulting works, a concert, and final representational firing take place. We build a small firebox, put a sculpture, on which the craftsmen have worked all these days, on the top of it. Then we wrap it with kaolin wool and start to burn. By evening, before the public, we open the statue, removing the wrap from it, and this red-hot figure shines brightly in the twilight of Vilva. Some of these sculptures are now exhibited at the House of Culture in the nearby village of Karyer, but we definitely want to open our own ceramics gallery in Vsevolodo-Vilva.

It is pleasant and useful to sculpt for yourself, but it is necessary to share the experience, so I learned to be an additional education teacher in applied arts. Children should sculpt, it is natural for them. It is not only and not so much about the development of fine motor skills, but about what the child manifests itself through modeling and shows precisely what interests him. I am happy that ceramics happened on my way: this process gives me so much strength and energy that I don't feel tired from work at all. I go to the workshop and clearly understand why I go there — to teach children what I can do, to learn how to sculpt and live.