Ceramic
Mounia Guenatri
Céramiste in Nice
Mounia Guenatri is a ceramic artist based in Nice, France, and founder of L'Element Terre studio. After fifteen years as a genetics researcher, she transformed her life to work with clay, creating intuitive ceramic pieces and teaching in her studio. In this interview, we talk with Mounia about her journey from science to ceramics, the physical connection with clay, building L'Element Terre as a creative community, and finding balance between artistic creation and teaching.
How would you describe what you do?
I'm a ceramicist. For me, working with clay is first a physical connection with the material itself, this earth that comes from the magma of our planet. It brings us back to our own grounding as humans. In a world where everything becomes dematerialized, touching clay is a way to return to something essential. It's an intuitive source of inspiration, not an intellectual one, even though I used to be a genetics researcher. I changed my life at forty, leaving science to become a ceramicist. Clay allows me to quiet the mind and create from the body and intuition. It's an extraordinary experience.
How did this transition from scientific research to ceramics happen?
I don't think the shift is as big as it seems. Researchers and artists share a lot, curiosity, freedom, the drive to explore what isn't known yet. I left research because I felt constrained by the system, the lack of funding, the politics. Freedom is essential for me. I had always sculpted on the side, so I decided to leave one passion for another. I studied ceramics in Paris, including the functional side of the craft, which is easier to sell.
Photography credits: Repose Studio.
Repose Archive is a creative direction journal documenting processes and projects across art, design, architecture, and hospitality.