Margarida Beja — Clay, Terroir & the Vessel
Margarida Beja — Clay, Terroir & the Vessel
Before glass, wine lived in clay. Amphorae carried wine across the ancient Mediterranean — from Phoenicia to Greece to Rome, from vineyards to tables across a world that didn't yet have an alternative. The clay held the wine. The wine changed the clay. The vessel and its contents became, over time, inseparable.
Margarida Beja works in Lisbon with local clay and traditional Alentejo forms — the same ceramic traditions that shaped the vessels in which Portuguese wine was stored and transported for centuries. Her work is not nostalgic. It is a contemporary practice that takes its material and its forms seriously, that understands clay as a carrier of place the same way a wine carries its vineyard.
Terroir, in the wine sense, is the character of a place expressed through what grows there. But terroir also lives in the vessel that holds what grows. The clay of the Alentejo — its specific mineral composition, its particular behaviour when fired — is as much a part of the wine's story as the grapes that went into it. Some of Portugal's most interesting natural winemakers are working with clay amphorae, completing a circle that runs from the ancient world back to the present.
The conversation: about materiality and place. About what clay knows. About the relationship between the vessel and what it carries — and why, in Portugal, that relationship is not historical but ongoing.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Fringed jacquard cardigan
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024