Legnica International Jewellery Competition 2006

The odds are that contemporary business experts are right. Nothing sells like a big scandal!

If someone naively thinks that stylistic trends are created in design studios of Mediolan, he should stop having illusions. The centre of everything has moved to Beverly Hills and contemporary design is infected with the mechanics of manipulation used in promotion. Nowadays nobody estimates quality parameters any more; only the emotions of the media arouse discussion on a hot topic: how much did the necklace cost which Angelina Jolie wore during the Oscars gala? The consequences of this process concern not only superficial observations,for example that tooth brushes resemble pens, pens resemble lollipops, and lollipops resemble teeth. The essence of the problem is the fact that common standardization of aesthetic models destroys local traditions, deprives us, the customers, of choice, and maybe even, like alterglobalists said, is a danger to democracy.

Of course, we would like to believe that superficial “styling” conditioned by market demand won’t predominate completely over experimental design, that art as a language of communication still exists, that Marcel Duchamp’s proclamation of the destruction of art, endlessly referred to, still remains an artistic manifesto which
paradoxically confirms the vitality of art.

In the context of our art it’s worth answering a few important questions:

Is an artistic provocation at all possible in the times of dispensable products and superficially consumed messages? Does this imply that the only possible direction of the arts (including the art of jewellery) future development consists in the artists making increasingly radical statements to outdo the predecessor in order to achieve a fleeting media effect? Is it still possible for an intellectual provocation to find its audience?

Can any relevant pretext be found to entice the jewellery artists to get involved in an intellectual discussion concerning the “here and now”? Can the art of jewellery become a visual medium to convey messages and meanings? Has jewellery already become no more than a decorative gadget, an ornament – and if so, is it bound to stay that way?

Maybe it is not worth making yet another useless object.

Instead, let’s design an artistically meaningful:
SCANDAL!!!

Whatever it means in the current social and cultural context and with regard to contemporary jewellery” even if the only effect would be to test the current limits of what is possible and acceptable.

Slawomir Fijalkowski

Dates and place of the exhibition

10 May - 11 June 2006
The opening ceremony: 27 May 2006, 6.30 p.m.
Exhibition space: The Gallery of Art in Legnica, Plac Katedralny 1
The Organizers plan to present the exhibition in Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Krakow, Warszawa and other cities in Poland and abroad.


Aim, task and material

The aim of the exhibition is to present the most interesting accomplishments of contemporary jewellery art. The
submitted works should be jewellery in the broad sense of the term, display creativity as well as high standards of design and execution. The Organizers set no restrictions as to the materials and techniques employed but to honour the competition’s over 25-year-long tradition, the inclusion of silver in the work is expected.


Conditions and terms of participation

1. The competition is open to all artists from Poland and abroad.
2. There are no restrictions as to the number of works submitted by a participant, provided that:
– the copyright is with the artist,
– the works are submitted under the artist's name,
– all the works submitted by the artist can be contained within a case measuring 40 x 40 x 35 cm; by the Organizer's earlier permission, the arrangements can be made to accept objects of dimensions exceeding those specified above.
3. The artist declaring his or her participation in the competition is obliged to:
– submit the objects, accompanied by a properly filled-in invoice and application form, sent or otherwise delivered (at the artist's own expense) to the Gallery by the deadline of 19 April 2006 (the deadline concerns the actual arrival of the work, not the postmark)
– send the submitted works in an appropriate and secure packaging that will protect the objects from damage and can be re-used for returning them to the artist.
4. The packages will be opened by a commission.
5. Every participant will make a payment of EUR 30 by 6 May 2006. Payable to the account of the Gallery of Art in Legnica: Bank Zachodni WBK S.A, Oddzialw Legnicy, Legnica ul. Gwarna 4, Account No. KOD SWIFT:
WBKPPLPPXXX, IBAN: PL 75-1090-2066-0000-0005-4200-0399
6. The works not qualified for the exhibition will be returned at the artist’s expense by 30 June 2007 according to the instructions provided by the artist on the application form.