Preziosa 2009: Cutting the Mirror

Cutting the mirror. 12 artists jewellers. An aesthetic lexicon.
By Maria Cristina Bergesio, curator. 

Preziosa is the prestigious European exhibition devoted to contemporary research jewellery. The project began in 2005, and was conceived, organized and coordinated by Le Arti Orafe, since 1985 international school for contemporary jewellery in Italy.

The 2009’s edition of Preziosa could be considered an attempt to approach the complex theme of beauty in the research jewellery.

In the commercial jewellery the main aim is to give beauty to the person that will wear jewels, this is its first function. The jewel is an object that is giving a codified beauty and that of course have to respect rules and canons.
This is not happening in the word of research jewellery. The jewel is an aesthetic work for itself and is an expression of a specific artistic choice. Moreover it is an empathic work that requires an active attitude of the public, a more reflective look, an observation of its peculiarities, shapes, materials, contents, provocations.
The aim of the exhibition is to give an idea of the wide range of various researches in act in the jewellery as an art form.

To explore this stratified field the exhibition is thought as an itinerary built up around key-words coming from the lexicon of aesthetics.

The jewels are selected as visualizations of an aesthetic concept that is giving to the public the possibility to focus on a certain aspects of the artist’s research. In this way each work represent a particular declension of the beauty’s concept.

Moreover looking at the exhibition as a whole, it could be possible to see the metamorphosis and the erosion of the classic beauty’s ideals from the ’60 till today. As the visual arts also research jewellery records the opening and the breaking of canons, introducing the shade of beauty: chaos, deformations, imperfections.

Cutting the mirror is a metaphor, giving a suggestion to the public regarding the fact that today there is no more an unique concept of beauty, but complex and stratified conceptions.
The exhibition, organized in a chronological order (following the birth date of the artist), will start with the works a masters that represent the classical beauty, in the sense of harmony and measure. 


Participant Artists past editions:
2005 Jacqueline Ryan, Erico Nagai, Kadri Mälk, Peter Skubic, Anna Maria Zanella, Francesco Pavan, Giovanni Corvaja, Janna Syvänoja, Xavier Ines Monclus, Peter Chang, Nel Linssen.

2006 Bruno Martinazzi, Christoph Zellweger, David Watkins, Frédéric Braham, Friedrich Becker, Gerd Rothmann, Gijs Bakker, Marjorie Schick, Naomi Filmer, Noam Ben – Jacob, Ruudt Peters.

2007/2008 Giampaolo Babetto, Stefano Marchetti, Vera Siemund, Ramón Puig Cuyàs, Eija Mustonen, Mari Ishikawa, Jivan Astfalck, Mah Rana, Ted Noten, Katja Prins, Tanel Veenre.


Preziosa 2009 is organized by: 
Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School, Firenze and Lucca.
Ganjam Nagappa & Son, Bangalore, India 

Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School
Via dei Serragli, 104
50124 Firenze (Italy)
www.artiorafe.it
Tel. +39 055 22 80 131
Fax: +39 055 22 80 163

Giò Carbone:
+39 335 62 62 183
gio@artiorafe.it
Skype ID: giocarbone


Ganjam Nagappa & Son
Pvt. Ltd., # 080 22286135/36
63, Palace Road, Vasanth Nagar
Bangalore - 560052
Karnataka, India
0091 80 22 28 61 35/36 - FAX 0091 80 22269354.

Ms. Aditi Chaudhuri, Manager-International Operations
aditi@ganjam.com
 

Activities

Collateral events:

Second edition of LPYoung.
The exhibition is devoted to young goldsmiths/designers/ worldwide. The aims is to contribute to the diffusion of what is new in the research jewellery, what the new generation of goldsmiths/designers/artists is “boiling in the pot”…. The work of 12 goldsmith/artists selected by an international panel

Fresh Metal.
Contest-Exhibition created for students of the goldsmith craft, gaining their skills in private jewellery and goldsmith schools. The project was launched by the Poland school ANTIDOTUM in cooperation with LE ARTI ORAFE.
The jewels created by students of both schools will be showed.