Myriam Aït Amar

Ceramicist

©Caroline Sweet Memories

©Marie Roura

The sublime beauty of imperfection

Ceramics is Myriam's purpose in life
She thinks she still has much to learn
She puts her heart into every piece she makes

Always fascinated by manual labour, Myriam Aït Amar knew that this kind of profession would never give her any economic security. "I belong to that generation for which study was the only means to guarantee a future" she says. "I therefore always studied hard, becoming a teacher at school. But I was not satisfied with it. I was fascinated by the furnishings of friends' homes from an early age, I felt that something led me to that world of precarious manual art. So, I enrolled in art school." It was the turning point of her life. She studied in Cordoba, Spain, where she learned to listen to herself. And trust herself. From there her work was born: from the bottom of her heart. “Every piece I make is a piece of me.”

Interview

©Caroline Sweet Memories

©Caroline Sweet Memories

What does ceramics represent to you?: Thanks to ceramics, in some ways I’m connected to life, in other ways it removes me and transports me to a dream state. It’s like it brings up something in me that I want to communicate with, making others participate and share it with me.
How would you define what you do?: I work with emotions and that makes me dream. I’m also very much influenced by the past: in one of my collections, I pay tribute to the needlework of the women of my family by applying the laces of my great grandmother onto my ceramics.
What does well made mean to you?: Well made is something that is done with all the sincerity that comes from the bottom of the heart. It is linked to something extraordinarily personal and intimate and as such it cannot be badly done. Provided there is absolute sincerity.
Do you think your job is in danger?: I don’t think so. This craft will change and be reborn. A lot of people are rediscovering manual arts in general, ceramics in particular. The pandemic has made people wonder what they really wanted out of their lives. Many have rediscovered ancestral works such as ceramics.

Myriam Aït Amar is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2005