From hand to hand

The exhibition
The exhibition brings together works by 58 jewellery-makers of 3 generations (12 masters, 39 pupils, 7 pupils of pupils) who have emerged from 10 schools in various countries: Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. It is organised around the first-generation teachers, with the addition of their pupils and, in some cases, the
pupils of their pupils. The tradition that the Swiss are great travellers is confirmed here: of the 17 Swiss jewellers included, 5 of whom currently teach abroad, 5 pursued complementary training outside Switzerland before returning home. The choice of pieces was carried out in agreement with the creators. The majority of the works date from the last five years. In a few cases they are older because they are emblematic of the work of particular teachers. Each creator has the same module at his/her disposal, without any sort of hierarchy: a trolley on wheels offering a presentation area of around 1m2. This display option conveys the very great mobility of jewellery creators: both the teachers who move around giving workshops and the pupils who follow the teacher of their choice.
Despite every effort on the scenographer’s part, a piece of jewellery presented in a display case is nothing but a miniature sculpture. It lacks its natural support, the body. To compensate for this absence from the exhibition, some of the jewellery pieces are also shown being worn by means of black-and-white photographs taken by students of the Ecole de Photographie in Vevey
(CEPV).
The exhibition’s organisation and scenography were undertaken by Carole Guinard, jewellerymaker and scenographer at the mudac.