22nd Diessen Pottery Market

The Diessen pottery market has long since developed into an international ceramics festival. In 2024, it will take place as usual on Ascension Day. Over four days, around 170 participants from 14 countries gather on the shore of Lake Ammersee. “There were a particularly large number of new applications for this year, including many young ones,” market manager Wolfgang Lösche says. The jury selected 17 new workshops, including ceramists from France, Italy and, for the first time, Lithuania and Georgia. Ukraine is once again represented.

“The constant weaving of beauty into every single day fills us with a lasting sense of well-being and offers us a retreat from the hectic pace of profit-oriented society.” Ruth Stark, exhibitor at the Diessen pottery market 2024. Photo David Hagemann.

The range extends from ceramics for the home and garden to abstract works of art by renowned ceramists. “The combination of selected, top-class participants from different countries in our newly designed lakeside facilities is fantastic and shows anew every year what artistic highlights we are offer here,” emphasizes Mayor Sandra Perzul. “This is also made clear every year by the many thousands of visitors who enjoy coming to the pottery market in the municipality.”

In addition to “Ceramics on the Lake” in the lakeside area, the highly esteemed Diessen Ceramics Prize and the Ceramics Trail with exhibitions in the Blue House Cultural Forum, in the Traidtcasten and in the Taubenturm with the solo exhibition “A Feast for the Senses – the Porcelain World of Barbara Hast”. The whimsical porcelain creations of the ceramist, who died in 2022, refer to the 17th century’s love of natural forms and are reminiscent of the exotic curiosities of Baroque treasure chambers. Schnuppe von Gwinner will speak at the opening of the exhibition in the Taubenturm on May 9, 2024 at 7 pm.

Barbara Hast’s vessels seem to have sprung from a magical world. She applied the all-encompassing “spots”, as she humorously called the dabs of slip, one by one with a paint horn.

Drinking vessels for cider, juice, wine and beer will be on display in Erwin Kloker’s central exhibition pavilion in the middle of the market. “The Diessen pottery market signals a common cultural, European togetherness and is a sign of international understanding,” emphasizes Wolfgang Lösche. “I am particularly looking forward to the presentation of the ceramics class from Burg Giebichstein in Halle/Saale, which has already caused quite a stir in the past two years with the ceramics of its students.”

Works by Lina-Josephine Wiedwald and Romina Ried, students of the ceramics class at Burg Giebichstein from Halle an der Saale. Photo by Alexander Burzik.

The theme of this year’s award ceremony for the annual ceramics prize donated by the Rohde company, with an exhibition in the historic Traidtcasten next to the Diessen church center with the famous Marienmünster, is “Big and small – contrast or harmony”. This motto is intended to encourage free competition between all types of ceramics. The prize money has been increased from 4,000 to 5,000 euros in 2023.

Applications for the Diessen Ceramics Prize until April 19

Applications for the Diessen Ceramics Prize must be submitted to the market town of Diessen by April 19, 2024. The award ceremony will take place in the Traidtcasten on May 9.