Sacrés Outils !

Sacrés Outils ! presents the works of about thirty artists. Whether considered as a subject of investigation, metaphorical support or simply diverted into a material, the technical instrument questions the relationship between human beings and their environment, be it natural or material. It bears witness to the new philosophical, social, cultural and environmental issues raised by our relationship to objects.

The first chapter, richly illustrated, traces the history of the representation of the tool and the technical phenomenon in jewellery since Antiquity. It ends with the Glorious Thirties, a time when experimental jewellery exploded on an international scale.
The following thematic chapters examine the way in which jewellery artists today approach the question of the tool and reflect on the technical phenomenon.

The subject of this book and the artists selected focus primarily on manual tools and technical or utilitarian objects. But they often go beyond this restricted framework to consider material culture as a whole. And rightly so, since every object made by man is in fact 'the product of a technical activity or its consequence'.

Sacrés Outils ! includes a story highlighting the initiatory dimension of apprenticeship; a technical chapter in which four artists describe their creative process in detail; a directory listing specialised magazines and platforms, prizes and awards, and jewellery schools in France and abroad.

The aim of this publication is to extend the visibility of experimental jewellery and some of its most remarkable practitioners. But also to underline the interest of a transversal approach to this hybrid and surprising discipline, which defies traditional categories. At the crossroads of art, craft, design and fashion, experimental jewellery is a creation of modernity. It embraces all its ambiguities and doubts. It is no longer time to discuss its value but to examine the specificity of this medium and the answers it provides to the issues of our time.

Artists: Bas Bouman (NL) - Sigurd Bronger (NO) - Sungho Cho (KR) - Lluis Comin (ES) - Jack Cunningham (UK) - Ramon Puig Cuyas (ES) - Lisa & Scott Cylinder (USA) - Robert Ebendorf (USA) - Veronika Fabian (HU/UK) - Karl Fritsch (DE/NZ) - Gesine Hackenberg (DE/NL) - Karin Herwegh (NL) - Holland Houdek (USA) - Peter Machata (SK) - Kelly McDonald (AU/NZ)- Sebastia Macia (ES) - Juan José Garcia Martin (ES) - Robert Mazlo (LB/FR) - Xavier Monclus (ES) - Liana Pattihis (CY/UK) - Jo Pond (UK) - Katja Prins (NL) - Quars d'una (Maria Diez - Carla Garcia Durlan - Sandra Llusa - Clara Niubo) (ES) - Bernhard Schobinger (CH) - Fabrizio Tridenti (IT) - Christel van der Laan (NL/AU) - Gabi Veit (IT) - † J. Fred Woell (USA).

This book is published by the Robert Mazlo Endowment Fund for Art and Contemporary Jewellery, with the support of the Alice Art Foundation, LA Joaillerie by Mazlo gallery and the Arketip Association.

Robert Mazlo Endowment Fund for Contemporary Art and Jewellery has decided to offer a special rate of -20% -the book will be 70.40 euros instead of 88 euros- to the following readers
- Craftsmen (all trades) ;
- Artists ;
- Students in art or jewellery schools; 
- Art and Jewellery schools;
- Young people under the age of 25; 
- Researchers whose subject of study is related to jewellery.

For order please send an email to contact@fonds-mazlo-art.com