12th ERFURT Jewellery SYMPOSIUM

The 12th Erfurt Jewellery Symposium will take place from the 1st until the 15th of August 2008. This symposium has taken place in Erfurt since 1984, making it one of the oldest jewellery symposiums in Germany. This symposium is unique in that it’s main focus is to provide a platform for a group of invited international artists to come together and exchange ideas in the context of a working environment, being the artists workshops of the city of Erfurt. 

The symposium is often thematized giving the invited guests a common point of departure. This years symposium offers as a starting point the 200th anniversary of the Congress of Erfurt, where Napoleon meet with Tsar Alexander in an attempt to avoid war between France and Austria. This failed glittering event was played out with all the pomp and ceremony imaginable. The questions “What is the symbolic role of Jewellery in such events, then and now?” “What was/is jewellery’s role in status, power, honour, recognition and social belonging?” will be discussion points of the symposium. The process then of translating this starting point into sketches or finished pieces provides valuable insight for the participants into each others working processes, allowing room for understanding and discussion. 

This year the projects results will be exhibited in The Kunsthalle Erfurt, opening on the 14th of August at 7pm and continuing until the 14th of September 2008. A colloquium accompanies the Symposium, on Friday the 15th of August at 11pm in the Kleine Synagogue Erfurt. This yeas speakers will be David Bielander, Suska Mackert and Marjan Unger.