Cerâmica de autor
Photography by Claudine Boeglin
Miguel Netocer, or simply Neto, is a ceramic auteur who shapes and commands clay from his atelier in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. Like a bear in his den, he appears and disappears amidst organized chaos, always in motion. His windswept hair echoes the windswept Atlantic coasts he haunts, undeterred by the winds, to unearth natural elements he smuggles into the atelier.
A living theater, the space reflects the coherence of one man’s vision. Neto cuts pieces of clay from cylindrical shapes stacked on a cart, then energetically hurls them into an oven. Charcoal and ash tones, particles of dust, and the amputated wooden trunk serving as a pedestal all evoke the dramaturgy of nature.
Here, a bowl of schist, another of sand, a handful of silica. Neto holds them out to you to feel the texture of each powder. A minotaur, in metaphor,
contrabandista of the earth’s crust, with a poetic eye for abstraction—like a musician scripting adagios or electro beats—he might have been a drummer or conductor in another life.
Photography Claudine Boeglin @dandyvagabond
