It is from the universe of the "Archaic" and "Myth" that Pandora Association constantly drinks its lifeblood, a sap that starting from tradition propels it towards new horizons of ceramic art. The black fable, the misogyny of the vase has turned completely upside down but not to spread negativity everywhere, to become on the contrary a true incipit, a breath of life and renewal.                                              

And in addition to the Hellenic world so alive in our present, Pandora goes even further back in time, drawing from the ancient Matres of the Paleolithic, then of the Celts and Latin peoples and in particular inspired by the Roman ones sitting in groups on their royal thrones. It embraces a creative chorality that becomes its primal and disruptive force. Matres now represents the most authentic identity that distinguishes these women ceramists in many European and non-European countries, it is their collective name , their symbolic, synthetic and unifying figure to which they feel strongly that they belong. 

The fertility of Ceres, Cybele, and Juno returns to life in the guise of contemporary ceramics that continually seeks new forms, new techniques, and new languages. Motherhood as filiation, proliferation, and creation is taken up by Pandora not only in a strictly human but in a metaphorical sense. The great mother is the earth itself as written and oral biblical texts confirm: it is from the manipulation of the earth that man is born, it is life itself and the universe that comes from clay and is kneaded with it since primitive times. And that same earth-mother is a witness and maternal guide in the layered labyrinths of past civilizations through its remains that archaeologists unearth. But all this past world is entered into the globalized contemporary world, into the super-connected actuality through two important voices that communicate to the outside world the activities of the Matres-Pandora. The first is this magazine both printed and virtual: in one click it comes to put in close contact all the countries where ceramics is recognized and experienced by women as a moment of full realization, especially those countries that have joined the Pandora project. A magazine that in its first zero issue plumbed historical, territorial aspects, ancient and contemporary visions, worlds near and elsewhere.                                           

  The other most artistically expressive voice is undoubtedly the Matres Festival which has become an appointment, a must-meet that makes collective and monographic exhibitions, installations, seminars, conferences, but above all performances and workshop and educational moments visible every year. This year as many as 300 women artists from the Western to the Eastern hemisphere joined from 28 different nations expressing their particular techniques, their peculiar messages. They spoke on the general theme of Nature, but especially on Green-evolution. the environment and sustainable economy, addressing a very large audience of experts but also newcomers to ceramic art. South Korea was the protagonist of the first Matres Festival also becoming a true cultural-tourist exchange. During September 2019, a large group of women potters-Pandora visited a village inhabited exclusively by ceramic workers where they experienced and learned their varied ways of approaching the art of clay, the manual techniques of making their large traditional pots. This year a second, fruitful exchange with Cuban women artists will be repeated at the end of April, which will equally take place through joint exhibitions but also mutual knowledge and learning of the two different ceramic worlds. Europe meets thanks to Pandora with the Caribbean island world right there in the heart of Havana. We look forward to the amalgamation again this year of two realities so distant but unified by the one intent of growing in ceramic knowledge and creativity.