Fire House Sky Table Flower by Marc Monzó

Artist list

Marc Monzó

In its report, the jury of the Françoise van den Bosch Award uses such terms as ‘modest’ and ‘understated’ to characterise Monzó’s work. His designs are like Monzó himself: introverted and intelligent. The use of geometric forms, his ‘pure’ handling of material and technical perfection recall the work of Dutch jewellery designers from the 1960s and 1970s.
 
Monzó’s jewellery has a modern look: clear lines, no frills. His endeavor is to achieve the maximum with minimal means, but his work is not entrapped within a slavish following of dogmatic principles. Monzó loses none of his playfulness and engages in a relation with the world, whether he is toying with light and reflection or giving form to a personal memory.
 
For the Stedelijk Museum ’s-Hertogenbosch, which has been focusing its exhibition and collection policy exclusively on design for the past year, the fact that Marc Monzó is primarily a designer is crucial. During his training he already showed an interest in product design and serial production, which explains why his jewellery is always wearable and affordable. Form, function, material and technique are integrated in his jewellery on the basis of a clear design vision. The high level of expertise and technical skill leave nothing to chance, yet Monzó remains receptive to unexpected discoveries and responds to the properties of the material.
 
In all their austerity, Marc Monzó’s pieces of jewellery have something metaphysical. Monzó: I sometimes regard my jewellery as the residue of an activity. His work arises from a combined action with the materials that he uses, in which his own contribution (as the maker) is put on the same level as the input of the materials. Modest and not artistic in the traditional sense, Monzó is an atypical jewellery designer.
 
His subtle pieces address the basis of the discipline: form, material, technique. They do not carry a message, but they are intelligent and intelligently made. And in spite of their minimalist design, they often refer to natural phenomena.
 
This retrospective of his oeuvre shows that Marc Monzó is a poet in metal who crafts poems you can wear.

 

Activities

On 18 November the Françoise van den Bosch Prize 2016 will be awarded to Marc Monzó in the Stedelijk Museum ’s-Hertogenbosch.