Danish Jewellery Box, Contemporary Jewellery Design

Jewellery as an independent art form has a long tradition in Denmark. Based on the influences of the Arts & Crafts movement around 1900, an independent design language developed from 1916 onwards. It was characterized by simple yet expressive minimalism that is still considered a hallmark of Danish jewellery design today. But there is so much more to contemporary jewellery design made in Denmark: it independently reflects and interprets the respective epoch against the background of cultural, aesthetic, and social issues.

The curators Mette Saabye (jewellery designer, Copenhagen) and Petra Hesse (Director of the MAKK) have succeeded in playfully highlighting this aspect in the exhibition with thematic juxtapositions: Body & Jewellery, Tradition & Innovation, Status & Power, Ritual & Fetish, Space & Movement, Humour & Sarcasm, or Identity & Diversity provide an intriguing and extraordinary perspective of both the complexity and the development of Danish jewellery design. A total of 59 contemporary Danish jewellery designers are represented in the exhibition, including works by Anne Lahn, Annette Dam, Camilla Prasch, Gerda und Nikolai Monies, Helle Bjerrum, Kim Buck, Knud Erik Andersen, Marie-Louise Christensen, Mette Saabye, Peder Musse, Per Suntum and Pernille Mouritzen.




The exhibition title refers to the jewellery collection of the Danish Arts Foundation. As a state institution, since 1978, the foundation has been building up a ‘Jewellery Box’, which today comprises about 340 pieces that are permanently shown at the Koldinghus Museum in East Jutland. A special aspect of this collection is the Vores Smykker loan scheme, which was developed in 2007 based on the concept that jewellery is created to be worn on the body. Danish citizens, who play an active role at an official public event, may borrow elaborately designed rings, colourful necklaces, or experimental brooches for the respective event in Denmark or abroad. The ‘jewellery borrowers’ become ambassadors of jewellery art and allow for accessibility and dissemination, by actually wearing the jewellery, thus creating a dialogue with the population.

The MAKK’s jewellery collection, which will be presented as an independent show collection from 2022, comprises more than 1,500 objects from antiquity to the present. In the Danish Jewellery Box, 27 selected examples from renowned German and international jewellery artists are juxtaposed with Danish jewellery design. In particular, the MAKK will show works by Peter Chang, Wendy Ramshaw, Dieter Roth, Peter Skubic, Falko Marx, Bernhard Schobinger, E.R. Nele, and Johanna Dahm.




The exhibition is being staged in cooperation with The Danish Arts Foundation and as part of the German-Danish Cultural Year of Friendship. With exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances, debates, artistic projects, and platforms, as well as with cultural exchange and tourism, the Year of Friendship serves, on the one hand, to deepen the excellent cooperation between Denmark and Germany and, on the other hand, as an international initiative for peaceful and future-oriented coexistence in the 21st century.


>> With short texts by the curator and jewellery artist Mette Saabye, we offer you here, week by week, insights into the 12 themes of the exhibition.

>> The exhibition booklet

>> Link to the complete collection



The concept of the State Arts Foundation Jewellery collection
The Danish Arts Foundation was founded in 1964, with the purpose to, among other things, support Danish artists and ensure that citizens, from all over the country, had access to high-quality artistic experiences.
Since 1974, The Danish Arts Foundation has purchased works from the various artistic disciplines on an ongoing basis, and by lending them out, they become accessible in public spaces. In 2007, the foundation came upon an idea concerning the wearable art in the collection and established a lending scheme, based on the very concept that jewellery is created to be worn on the body. Danish citizens, who play an active role at an official public event, may borrow jewellery from the collection, now on permanent display at Koldinghus Museum. The ‘jewellery borrowers’ become ambassadors of jewellery art and allow for accessibility and dissemination, by actually wearing the jewellery and by creating a dialogue with a greater section of the population.
The jewellery collection also acts as a steadily growing study collection that now comprises around 340 pieces. Together, they provide insight into the development of contemporary Danish jewellery art, which is based on a strong tradition of craftsmanship and strict quality requirements. In addition to gaining an understanding of how this field has progressed, we also gain insight into daily life in Denmark, the core values of society, and its development over the last 50 years.

Mette Saabye, 2020


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