Vintage Violence by Brigitte and Volker Atrops

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Brigitte and Volker Atrops

Some time ago, I was invited to exhibit in a nineteenth century villa, where I made an exciting discovery. Behind the villa was a stranded ghost ship, in the form of an enormous, abandoned jewelry factory, the captain of which was still sitting behind stacks of dusty files and reading the latest newspaper. The ship’s lieutenant led me through the treasure-filled wreck . . . . A year later we returned on a 14-day mission to hammer out the bitter remnants of the past. Embossing, punching, winding. . . The 1950’s fashion-jewelry aluminum we found went into the early-industrial machines with such standard pieces, as is the case with genuine handicrafts. Through cottage-industryesque labor, the crude output of the machines was bound together into sheaves of lovely jewels. The pieces are numbered and stamped with BfG (Bund fur Gestaltung/Confederation of Design). The title, “Vintage Violence,” as well as the arrangement of the scene photographed for the invitation card, are taken from a completely different context and originate from an early 1970’s record sleeve (John Cale). Despite all the retrospect, the pieces are completely fresh and untarnished and on display now at Jewelers’Werk.