Hanau City Goldsmith Award 2008

Hilde De Decker, Londerzeel (Belgien)
2008 Hanau City Goldsmith

With the introduction of a City Goldsmith in 2004 the City of Hanau set an important mark as a goldsmith center. Alongside Staatliche Zeichenakademie, Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, and Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst, not to mention the gold and silversmiths working in the city, the City Goldsmith represents yet another highlight in this, the hometown of the Brothers Grimm.

With master goldsmith Rudolf Bott from Neuburg an der Donau having been appointed the first City Goldsmith in 2004, the Japanese jewelry artist Jiro Kamata from Munich was awarded the honor in 2006.

This year is to see the appointment of the third Hanau Goldsmith, whom the jury, consisting of Gabriele Jahns-Duttenhöfer (Director of Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau), Jiro Kamata from Munich (the 2nd Hanau City Goldsmith), Günter Kasper (guild master), Klaus Remer (Cultural Commissioner of the City of Hanau) and Dr. Christianne Weber-Stöber (Head of Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e.V. and principal of Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau), selected last year.

The close connections between the three institutions Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst and Staatliche Zeichenakademie is also expressed by the fact that the position of City Goldsmith is a joint undertaking: Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst coordinates and looks after the City Goldsmith, Staatliche Zeichenakademie provides a workplace for six weeks where students have an opportunity to work closely with the City Goldsmith in a workshop, Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus enables the City Goldsmith to present his work, and last but not least it is the City of Hanau that creates the financial framework and as such is to be seen as the sponsor of the City Goldsmith, as indeed the name implies.

With the appointment of the third Hanauer City Goldsmith on April 3, the award goes for the first time to a female artist, the Flemish jewelry designer Hilde De Decker from Londerzeel. The City of Hanau has enjoyed close contacts with Belgium for several years now: In 1997 Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus staged a presentation entitled “Jewelry from Belgium. Modernism 1945 – 1995”, at which Hilde de Decker was also represented. This was also the case with “Nature and Time”, an international competition staged on the occasion of State Flower Show in 2002. Three years ago this institution held the exhibition “German Silver after Bauhaus – The Vic Janssen Collection”.