Open Call for the 5th Slovenian Jewelry Week 2026

Slovenian Jewelry Week (SIJW) is an internationally recognized central platform for the presentation of contemporary jewelry design in Slovenia. It operates as a platform for the expression of creativity, innovation, and expertise, acting as a bridge between the past, present, and future. SIJW celebrates art, hard work, and passion for design, presenting contemporary jewelry as a reflection of the thoughts, ideas, and personalities of creators. At the same time, it offers visitors the opportunity to experience the creative vision of designers.

An open call invites contemporary jewelry designers from Slovenia, Europe and beyond to participate in the main exhibition SIJW 2026, which will take place in the Center Rog in Ljubljana. An expert jury will select the best designers who will have the opportunity to showcase their work, and the most successful will receive awards for exceptional achievements in design.


The theme of this year's exhibition is SUBSTANCE / REIMAGINED. It will explore questions such as: What is substance? What is the essence of substance? At what point does its reimagining begin to unfold?

We invite all contemporary jewelry creators to join us in exploring substance and its reimagining. How is substance conceived of today? Where does its essence lie, and how is it perceived in a world where digitization, artificial intelligence, and virtual worlds are changing our contact with material?


We are looking for works that tap into the relationship between the material and the spiritual, the physical and the virtual, between form and essence, tradition and modern technologies. Rather than merely tangible matter, substance is a field of vibrations, a bearer of stories, a space for dialogue between different realities, while the artist transcends their boundaries. In doing so, is the artist’s perception of substance increasingly also becoming a silent form of rebellion? Rebellion as a return to essence, nature, feeling, and slowness; rebellion as a renewed search for authenticity and genuineness in a world of imitation and replication. Rebellion against the loss of human emancipatory skills such as sensory and experiential bodily intelligence, imagination, and intuition.

We invite designers to delve into their own experiences, perceptions, and relationships to both technological and highly intuitive worlds and to explore how these two worlds differ and where they converge. Can they coexist, perhaps even merge and collaborate?

The main curated exhibition of SIJW 2026, SUBSTANCE /  REIMAGINED, will be held between 26 March and 18 April, 2026, at the creative Centre Rog in Ljubljana. Centre Rog brings together the cultural and creative sector, with an emphasis on craftsmanship, applied arts and design. For more information about Centre Rog, visit: https://center-rog.si/


>> The application period for the jewelry exhibition closes on 10 December, 2025. More detailed terms and conditions can be found in the attached PDF. 

The selection of designers will be decided by an experts’ jury, and applicants will be informed of the results by 10 January, 2026. The selected designers must deliver their pieces by 10 February, 2026. A fee of €70 must be paid for the return and insurance of the pieces.
The jury will only consider correctly completed applications.

Applicants may submit up to three (3) individual jewelry pieces or a collection related to the exhibition theme, SUBSTANCE / REIMAGINED . Applicants allow the use of visual and written materials for the purposes of promoting the project. The application must include photographs of the pieces, a photograph of the author and a statement of the authorship of the presented works.


The application form should include:

• Author's Biography (CV)
• Details about the Jewelry / Collection 
• Photograph of the Author
• Statement of the authorship

Required information in the application form is:

• Author's Biography (CV)

- Name and surname of the individual or name of the organization
- Email address
- Contact person's phone number
- Address/headquarters
- Biography of the author (maximum 800 characters; written as concise text (not in lines), written in the third-person perspective (3rd person)
- Website, Facebook, Instagram
 

• Jewelry / Collection Information: up to three (3) individual jewelry pieces or a collection

- Name/title of the piece (product name)
- Dimensions
- Material
- Technique
- Year of creation
- Description and concept of the submitted jewelry/collection (maximum 800 characters)
- High-resolution photos of the jewelry (jpg format, 300 dpi) with named files (e.g., smith_james_selfreflection_ring).
 

• Photograph of the Author

​High-resolution photos of the author’s self-portrait (jpg format, 300 dpi) with named files (e.g., smith_james_selfportrait)
 

• Statement of the authorship

Contact: SIAJ Slovenian Association of Jewellers: hello@slovenianjewelryweek.com