Open Call for Koru 8 International contemporary jewellery triennial

Heading for the woods
Forests play a crucial role in climate change and the sixth mass extinction. Globally forests cover almost one-third of the land, and their cultural and social meaning varies between cultures and contexts. Forests are multispecies and home to human and non-human animals. They are also meaningful places for relaxing, camping and foraging both in urban and rural environments.

What is a forest in the context of contemporary jewellery? Is it material, colours or textures, feelings, words, or experiences? How do forests relate to you and your culture?

In Finland forest is an important part of national narratives and can act as a symbol of timelessness and immemorial, for instance. The theme of the KORU8 Exhibition is discussed with the KORU8 Exhibition venue, Lusto – The Finnish Forest Museum. As Lusto is a specialist in forest culture, it offers a cohesive surrounding for the forest-themed artwork and also a space for questions of forest use and protection.

The Finnish Jewellery Art Association hereby announces the open call for the juried exhibition at the eighth international jewellery triennial KORU8. The exhibition is aimed at all professional artists or artist groups who are working as jewellery artists. We also welcome artists from other fields who focus on creating new ideologies and aesthetic views in the sense of contemporary jewellery.

The main purpose of the KORU8  exhibition is to present international contemporary jewellery extensively. Together with the exhibition, the event includes workshops and seminars, which bring together artists, lecturers, researchers and people with an interest in contemporary jewellery.
The KORU8 seminar and workshop will take place in Lappeenranta, Finland, in the spring/summer of 2024. Information about the workshops and the seminar program will be announced later. 

The KORU8 exhibition will open in April 2024 in Lusto - the Finnish Forest Museum, Punkaharju. From Lusto, the exhibition will continue to the Oulu Art Museum, Oulu in the beginning of 2025. As in previous years, the association aims to print an exhibition catalogue. 

>> Please note that the KORU 8 exhibition will be held in  two different locations: 
Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju in 2024 and Oulu Museum of Art in Oulu in 2025.


Jury  
The jury aims to compose an exhibition that shows contemporary jewellery in its many facets, with fresh perspectives and attitudes in today’s world, to draw together a selection of art pieces with interesting relations to each other.

The jury for the KORU 8 exhibition is composed of four members.

Kalkidan Hoex  
Adopted from Ethiopia and raised in the Netherlands, I always felt I lived between two different worlds. I explore the intricacies of my identity and relate to others through my jewellery and other interdisciplinary artworks. Between not being one nor the other, a third world started to exist. 
The work I create is strongly linked to how I experience my mixed identity. The objects I make are an expression of how I perceive these worlds. 
I want to show the realm where a blur of worlds exists. My experiences create a surrealistic place that conveys a feeling of culture that does not belong to one fixed place. Conveying through imagery how I adapted, conscious and unconscious, to both cultures. 
I use the in-between world to comprehend my reality and create the belief that I know where I belong. TheNEWtribe is about how I ground myself. It serves as my safe space and coping mechanism for the mental fractures I endured. Where I find my sense of identity, this world is deeply rooted in representational, educational and within the empowerment of the position I take. 

Real people, Real stories, Founder of TheNEWtribe

Reetta Karhunkorva 
She works as Senior Forest Culture Specialist at The Finnish Forest Museum Lusto, a national museum focusing on forest culture. She has an MA and she is preparing her PhD thesis on private forest owners’ relationships with the forests at the University of Eastern Finland. Karhunkorva has long experience as a museum professional and has worked on museum collections, exhibitions, expert work, living heritage and museum concept development.

Terhi Tolvanen 
She makes sculptural jewellery where she continuously reinvents nature. Her imaginary wearable trees and plants connect natural and man-made, questioning at the same time the role of control and freedom in this dialogue.
After graduating as a silversmith in 1993 from the Design Institute in Lahti, FI she continued her education at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, NL. In 1997 she was invited to study at the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam, NL for her Master of Arts degree, which she obtained in 1999. Right after her graduation, Terhi started exhibiting her work in many solo and group exhibitions internationally.
Her jewellery is in many important collections around the world, such as the Schmuck Museum in Pforzheim, DE, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK, Coda Museum in Apeldoorn, NL. The latest acquisitions are made by the Musée Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris, FR and MAD New York, gift Porter Price Collection, USA.
Since 2017 Terhi is also been teaching in ENSAD, the École National Supérieur d’Art et Design in Limoges in France.

Selina Väliheikki (she/her)
She works as a curator of exhibitions at the Oulu Museum of Art. She is interested in small things and motivated by collective practices and feminist pedagogy. Before Oulu Museum of Art, she was part of collectives initiating Feminist Culture House and Museum of Impossible Forms in Helsinki.


How to apply
The open call is open for all professional artists, artist groups and students who are working as jewellery artists. We also welcome artists from other fields who focus on creating new ideologies and aesthetic views in the sense of contemporary jewellery.

Each applicant can suggest 1-10 current pieces made no earlier than 2022. There are several months between the publication of the open call and the application deadline, which is meant to encourage the production of new pieces. Artists may apply with finished pieces that will be available for the exhibitions from April 2024 till April 2025. The form of an art piece is not limited; it can be wearable pieces, installations, videos etc. 

Participation is free of charge, but the selected artists will be responsible for sending the pieces to Finland, which includes possible insurance and postal costs as well as customs formalities and fees. The organizer will be responsible for ensuring the pieces during the exhibition, as well as for the costs of sending them back to the artist.


Application requirements
The selection will be made anonymously. 
The application should be one PDF file of max 5 MB, in landscape format, including all the following information:

• One art piece on one page with the following information: title of the artwork (if existing), type of jewellery/artwork, year, materials and size
• Artist statement incl.  artist’s country of origin/country of residence, a short introduction of pieces/concept (voluntary), altogether max 2000 characters
• abridged CV of max 1 page A4
• name the pdf with an alias! When sending the application, please write your contact details in the email, do not include your name anywhere in the application PDF (e.g. artist statement or cv). 
• If applying with a video, include a link for the jury to access the video on Youtube, Vimeo or a similar streaming platform (note! your name must not been seen on your channel.)

An example of the application can be found here.
Send your application to: info@koru8.fi

Note!
The applications will not be printed; please respect the maximum size of the file of your application. Selected artists will be asked for printable image files from the selected pieces later. 

Applicants will be notified of the results of their entry by email in December 2023.