For Ana Maria Asan, sound holds the part of odour and flavour in Proust's thoughts, like souls remaining long after everything else has long gone.

The Sonores project was born in 2010-2011 in a key moment of the artist's life and gathers currently several sound installations and ceramic objects. Clay being one of her materials of choice, she looks for using it, discover it and reveal it to others through less common aspects. With the exception of a few musical instruments existing in different cultures, ceramics has the ability, too little explored, to create sound.

If the shape of the objects derives from a functional vocabulary, it does not award them any utility. They move off design by the mere process of their making (visible seams, sharp edges and outgrowths) which place them rather in an uncertain zone, somehow altered. Organic or mechanical? In the case of other objects, this distance is underlined by primitive firings bringing random and irreproducible visual results. However, the reference to design is obvious for some objects and installations belonging to the project.

From the imaginary sound to the actual experience, these objects push the viewer to become a listener, opposing the materiality of clay to the apparent immateriality of sound. The gathering, juxtaposition, overlapping of sounds remind us of the ceramist artist working with clay in his studio.

The size of the objects is in connection with parts of the body: hands for the objects producing percussive and chafing sounds, mouth for the objects traversed by breath and breathing.

We live in an invasive and noisy environment. The artist takes a stand and refuses to become a passive listener, more and more overwhelmed by what the outside world lays upon her. Far from being content with producing easy "noises", Ana Maria Asan pushes permanently the boundaries of the sensory perceptions to reach the non-material. Her work is an invitation to discover our aptitudes for thinking and amazement, opening other possibilities for the contemporary ceramics.