JOYA 2010 Barcelona – ALCHIMIA presents its students – 16-17-18 Sept 2010

 Alchimia student’s work will be at JOYA

ALCHIMIA – School of contemporary jewellery -
Sera présente à JOYA Barcelona 2010

ALCHIMIA, escuela de joyería contemporánea de Florencia, está ubicada en el distrito de Oltrarno, un barrio que desde el medievo se ha caracterizado por sus talleres artesanos. Esta ubicación es muy relevante para una escuela que entre sus objetivos se encuentra la unión entre el aprendizaje y el conocimiento de las técnicas de los joyeros tradicionales mediante la búsqueda y la experimentación de ambas materias y el estrato conceptual de todo proceso creativo.
Alchimia se ha erigido como el mayor referente en joyería contemporánea tanto en Italia como en Europa. La importancia de generar un ambiente agradable entre profesores y alumnos ha auspiciado resultados de mucha calidad, cuya excelencia ha recibido numerosos reconocimientos internacionales.

Alchimia, school of contemporary jewellery in Firenze, is based in the Oltrarno part of Florence, a district of fine artisans’ workshops since Medieval times. This setting is important for a school that has among its goals to connect learning and knowledge about traditional goldsmiths’ techniques with research and experimenting on both subjects and the conceptual substrate of the creative process.
Alchimia has established itself as a major point of reference for contemporary jewellery-making both in Italy and in Europe. The importance of generating the right atmosphere between teachers and students has produced results of a very high quality, with peaks of excellence made evident by many international prized acknowledgements.

 

Estudiantes representados por la escuela ALCHIMA / Represented students :
Selen Ozus (Turquía, 1983), Anastasia Kandaraki (Grecia, 1983), Malaika Najem (Francia – Líbano, 1989), Ana Catalina Brenes Pozuelo (Costa Rica, 1983), Isabel Dammermann (Alemania, 1985), Shu Ping Joanne Huang (Corea del Sur, 1979), Sayaka Ito (Japón, 1979), Ting-Chun Ara Kuo (Corea del Sur, 1985) y María Eugenia López (Puerto Rico, 1975).

Shu Ping Joanne Huang

Sayaka Ito

Selen Ozus

María Eugenia López

Malaika Najem

Anastasia Kandaraki

Catalina Brenes

Isabel Dammermann 

 

JOYA :  FAD, Plaza dels Angels 6-5, 08001 Barcelona

 

ALCHIMIA
Piazza Piattellina 3/R 50124 Firenze Italy
[phone]
www.alchimia.it
[e-mail]

EXPO ‘I Care A Lot – Opening’ – Gallery Platina, Stockholm (Sweden) – 2 Sept.-2 Oct. 2010

A Portable Discussion about current issues in the Middle East.
42 juried jewellery artists from 22 countries showing work on the conflict

 Why jewelry?
« Jewelry is an intimate art medium within the private and the public space which offers a personal relationship and an encounter between the wearer ,the viewer audience and the actual jewelry. It is an invitation to start a conversation and it can make a meeting possible. The body is a portable show case and the wearer chooses what and how to exhibit on him/her. Jewelry express the wearer character and sense of humor, it acts as an extension to the wearer personality, indicating his/her group of belonging, it is asking questions or claiming its opinion about the reality in which we live in, about our society, our surrounding and ourselves« 

The project aim is to raise discussion about current issues in the Middle East through an international art exhibition in which jewellery is the chosen media.
42 pieces of artists from 22 countries were selected independently by five international jury members – experts in their fields of studies and practice: Dr. Otto von Busch (Sweden) – Fashion Activist, Love Jonsson (Sweden) – Craft Critic, Prof’ Vered Kaminski (Israel) – Jewellery Artist, Shari Pierce (USA, Germany) – Jewellery Artist, Dr. Nada Shabout (USA,Qatar) – Art Historian

Cause We Care.
The region’s history and present are seeded with continuous violent national, ethnic and other conflicts. In many aspects the Middle East is considered to be one of the most sensitive and unstable regions in the world; strategically, economically, politically, culturally and religiously. It is located in the center of the international politics agenda. Its historical role, its huge reserves of crud oil and its significance for the three largest monotheist religions are usually taken as reasons for the world’s ardent interest in the region. But the attitude towards the Middle East has pasted the point of a keen interest in world affairs. By now it seems clear that the Middle East is perceived, especially by consumers of Western media, as the place where world dramas converge, or – more accurately – collide. It is almost the opposite of the Bermuda Triangle: everything that happens there pops up on our radars.
What is the Middle East? What is the source of our attraction to it? Is it just that it happens to be the most eventful place on earth? What is the nature of our commitment to effecting the future of the region? Do we really care about what goes on there? Do we really care about what goes on anywhere that is elsewhere? Do we care about the Middle East in a way similar to the way we care about how people look at us? Do we care about it the way we care about what people see in us?

Artists : Adam Grinovich, Ana Morais Caldas, Anna Williams, Vivi Touloumidi, Annette Dam, Barbara Deriemaeker, Beatrice Brovia, Burcu Buyukunal, Caitlin Wood, Chloé Durand, Claire Baloge, Dalya Israeli, Deganit Stern Schocken, Einat Leader, Ela Bauer, Ella Wolf, Filomena Praça , Frida Åberg, Gular Mustafa, Hannah Joris, Iacov Azubel, Ingrid Römmich & Veronika Schmid, Jan Turzo, Katja Prins, Kristina Lugonja, Loukia Richards, Malaika Najem, Marieke Van Diepen, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Michal Oren, Michelutti Flavia Eleonora, Midori Ikeda, Miri Admoni, Noga Hadad, Nuria Briones Perez, Sally Von Bargen, Mervat Hakroosh & Rotem Lewinsohn, Tamara Navama, Teresa Milheiro, Ulla Ahola, Machteld Van Joolingen, Vered Babai,

 Jan Turzo - ‘Division’ – Slovakia – 2009
Rotem Lewinsohn & Mervat Hakroosh -  Forbidden Love – Israel, 2010 

Sally Von Bargen – Elegy USA, 2008
Vered Babai - Pinched Rings – Israel, 2010

Claire Baloge (FR) -  Camel dung, gold leaf, silk (collier en crottes de chameau … j’adore !!)

« I have chosen to use camel dung, because  it’s shape and color. Although the use of camel dung in jewelry may provoke it also links: in those (not so) far-away countries, many people are still using these animals, and their excrement, in daily life, while some others, a few miles away , are smoking the cigars of the oil business. I have chosen to use gold because gold is the referential measurement on which the whole world economy is founded. It remains a major symbol for jewelry, almost everywhere around the world. While camels are traditionally emblems of the noble class, in the nomad society, a clear mark of wealth and importance. It seems to be two different temporalities, which are still sharing the same space, coexisting in the same territories. »

Machteld Van Joolingen – The Line

Gallery Platina
Odengatan 68,
Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.platina.se/Pressrelease/Icarealot_press.html
See more www.icarealot.me 

COUP de … ROUGE at « I Care a Lot » EXPO online

 « I Care a Lot »  online exhibition

 icarealot is happy to announce about the opening of the exhibition at Platina Gallery, Stockholm : September 2nd, 2010.

More Great news! November 6th 2010 : Our third opening at Gallery Articula, Lisbon, Portugal

 

Ela Bauer (NL) ‘An’necklace -black & red thread

« This is a huge heart which actually is a huge knot. That is the key feeling in this work; a huge,  screaming (maybe bleeding..), knot- heart. The knot is such a paradoxical form; it consists of “one”, but through an action (of knotting) it becomes “two”, with a heart between them. At the same time it is the ground of endless processes which in themselves are not complex, but all together they create an unsolvable, knotted reality. An un-followable mass of actions and reactions. There is no wrong or right, just a complex, painful situation. » (Ela Bauer)

Katja Prins (NL)-’Bound by Blood’ Necklace – 2007 – wooden beads, cotton

 » This necklace brings together and mixes various prayer-necklaces, which only differ in detail. Prayerbeads are being used in several religions and they all have their own systematical design. The beads stands for the different prayers and by following the beads you can’t loose track and count while you are praying. The Roman-Catholic church has the ‘rosary”, the Islam has the “tespi”,  Buddhism (Nichiren) has the “juzu”and Tibetan Buddhism has the “mala”. Nowadays we are living in a time of globalization. Worldwide people are connecting more and more, not only economically, but also politically and culturally. Borders are fading and people travel and migrate more than ever. Out of that comes integration of different cultures and religions. Partly because of the not always so very successful integration-policy of many countries, extremism in certain religions also flourishes, conflicts arise. With this/my interpretation of the prayer-necklace I want to bring together all  prayer-necklace and make 1 out of it all.  A contemporary blood red prayer necklace. In my opinion the religions don’t differ so much from one another, they differ mostly in details. That’s what I want to show with this necklace. By bringing together all the prayerbeads, symbolically I want to bring together the different religions and with that the people. The title “Bound by Blood” stands for the idea that on the inside we are all the same. It also refers to the many wars (and with that the shedding of a lot of blood) that have been fought in the name of religion » (Katja Prins (NL))

Burcu Buyukunal (TR) -’Terrifying Beauty’ head piece – brass, cubic zirconia – Turkey, 2009

« My work is driven by conventions and societal norms relating to the body prevalent in history both past and present. Plastic surgery, alternative medicine, and ways of predicting the future are belief  systems whose underpinnings I am uncertain of. I use my work to illustrate my inability to reconcile the purposes, needs, and motives of these systems and the people who subscribe to them. As a fairly recent development in mass culture, plastic surgery is a system that suggests attaining beauty popularized by the media. ‘Terrifying Beauty’ focuses on the trends of cosmetic surgery, which  oftentimes impose the conception of Western Beauty, to question conventions of beauty and  challenge the function of jewelry as adornment. I created four pieces distorting the face in an unlikely way, contrasting and contradicting the purpose of traditional jewelry. I want my work to surprise and challenge people to inspire questioning. Suggesting something extreme, unusual, and irrational is one strategy to achieve this. I hope the viewer will immediately ask if they would or would not wear such pieces. I wanted to use gold first but it was expensive for me. So, I used brass that looks like gold in the photos. Then I noticed that material hierarchy was another convention. Thus, using brass supported my idea. My forms simply followed the function of each piece.« (Burcu Buyukunal)

Iacov Azubel (Argentina) – ‘Maim’ ring – 2009 – Gold filled Silver – Plexiglas – Mobile Water -Air Bubble

« The water in the subject being treated, andcolor global warming » (Iacov Azubel (Argentina))

Vivi Touloumidi (GR) – ‘wet’ necklace -  150 laminated tissues , black ink , tape, nylon

Tamara Navama (Israel), 2010 -Bracelet -Aluminum, Copper, Epoxy – engraved, photo etching

Sally Von Bargen (USA) – ‘Elegy’ Necklace – Brass, paper, digital photos

« ‘Elegy’ honors the individual men and women who left homes … travelled to Iraq for war and died there. It is about the pain of loss and lies, etched with the words, « lies brought this lament – this elegy of truth – these lost treasures.
Elegy is a monumental neck-piece consisting of over 4200 digital portraits. Each portrait shows one American man or woman who lost life in Iraq during the Bush presidency. Using public  records for the names and photos of the fallen, if no portrait was available a silhouette was used to represent the lost life. Each Elegy portrait is printed on acid-free paper, which was chosen for its workability. The prints were mounted on an intermediate paper layer and sandwiched back-to-back to form a simple 1.5cm x 3cm link.  The links were connected by brass rings and formed into 70 strands which terminate at brass disk. The disc is etched with the words, “lies brought this lament – this elegy of truth -these lost treasures. » (Sally Von Bargen)

 

 

online exhibition : Adam Grinovich — Ana Morais Caldas — Anna Williams — Annette Dam – Barbara Deriemaeker– Beatrice Brovia –Burcu Buyukunal–  Caitlin Wood — Chloé Durand — Claire Baloge –Dalya Israeli– Deganit Stern Schocken– Einat Leader — Ela Bauer – Ella Wolf Filomena Praça– Frida Åberg– Gular Mustafa– Hannah Joris –Iacov Azubel– Ingrid Römmich & Veronika Schmidt –Jan Turzo–Katja Prins — kristina Lugonja– Loukia Richards– Malaika Najem Marieke Van Diepen –Melanie Georgacopoulos –Michal Oren –Flavia Michelutti — Eleonora Midori — Ikeda Miri Admoni –Noga Hadad– Nuria Briones Perez– Sally Von Bargen –Mervat Hakroosh & Rotem Lewinsohn– Tamara Navama –Teresa Milheiro– Ulla Ahola –Machteld Van Joolingen  –Vered Babai– Vivi Touloumidi

 

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ALCHIMIA @ EuroBijoux 2010

Alchimia’s 3rd year students Maru Lopez and Malaika Najem have been selected to participate in the Young Designers Awards Contest which will be held, coinciding with the next edition of EuroBijoux & Accessories 2010 in Palma de Mallorca,  5–8 May 2010.

Malaika Najem (FR/Lebanon) – necklace, aluminium casted, gold 22kt

Maru Lopez (Puerto Rico) – lipstick (object) +  vanity (necklace),  silver

EXPO/MOSTRA ‘Natura e Artificio’ -Museo di Storia Naturale del Mediterraneo, Livorno (IT) – 27 avril- 3 mai 2010

L’idea di questa mostra nasce dall’ interesse che gli artisti orafi hanno mostrato già nel passato, per il mondo della natura, in particolare per quello floreale; questo interesse ha segnato la nascita a cavallo di due secoli, di uno stile forte e deciso che in Europa è stato comunemente conosciuto come  “Art Nouveau”. E’ a quello spirito di innovazione e discussione che ci ispiriamo, non a caso nato poco dopo la rivoluzione industriale ed in contemporanea ai nuovi materiali, alle nuove tecnologie… ai nuovi pensieri.

Chiediamo quindi agli artefici (che vorranno contribuire con la loro partecipazione al nostro progetto) di confrontarsi con il tema della natura, interrogandosi sul naturale (o innaturale) significato di artificio. Sarà poi interessante vedere quale è oggi, nel gioiello contemporaneo, il nuovo punto di vista : quali le forme dell’artificio più consone a rappresentare la natura, quale il punto di contatto (o rottura) tra il naturale e l’ artificiale.
Il locale espositivo è prestigioso e si presta molto bene per una manifestazione del genere, è un’ampia struttura in acciaio e vetro molto moderna e super attrezzata dotata di vetrine illuminate (di varie misure), posta in un bellissimo giardino.
Nell’ organizzazione dell’evento, che ha il patrocinio e il sostegno della Provincia di Livorno, siamo stati coadiuvati dal Garden Club di Livorno che parteciperà presentando, per l’ inaugurazione, composizioni floreali di impostazione contemporanea.
I partecipanti potranno inviare un massimo di tre opere (di cui almeno una obbligatoriamente sul mondo dei fiori o delle piante, mentre le altre due potranno avere come soggetto la natura in senso lato) . Ogni autore presenterà un breve testo critico (verrà esposto nelle vetrine e stampato nel catalogo insieme alla foto dell’opera) che possa aiutare a mettere in evidenza la relazione esistente per l’autore tra natura e artificio. Ci auguriamo che ciò serva a chi parteciperà per crescere nel confronto, e ai visitatori per abituarsi ad osservare le opere esposte con un occhio più contemporaneo, più consapevole dei cambiamenti e delle spinte che oggi indirizzano la ricerca in tutti i campi.
A tale proposito il pubblico voterà le tre opere più meritevoli, parallelamente ad una giuria di addetti ai lavori. Le opere selezionate verranno segnalate in catalogo, e sarà interessante interrogarsi poi sulle eventuali discordanze di giudizio. Firmatari del progetto: Corrado De Meo, Federico Vianello, Walter Romani, Carlotta Gambineri, Stefano Pedonesi, Fabio Corsini. 

Partecipants from Alchimia:  Anja Eichler — Gabi Veit — Ktty Kao — Satita Rojpojjinarat  — Nadege Roscoe-Rumjahn — Carissa Hsu — Catalina Brenes  — Malaika Najem — Lucia Massei

Corrado De Meo, “Peonia Aurea”  - first price public selection

« The exhibition “Natura e Artificio” organized by the Tuscan section of AGC (Contemporary Jewelry Association, Italy) and the Garden Club Livorno opened on Tuesday 27th of April in the delicious location of Villa Henderson in Livorno.
It is the first exhibition of contemporary jewelry in Livorno and the affluence was amazing.
The idea of this exhibition comes from the interest that goldsmiths always showed for the natural world, especially for flowers, and we wanted to show to the public contemporary interpretations. We asked the authors to confront themselves with the theme of nature, questioning the natural or unnatural meaning of artifice.
The exhibition had no selection, all authors who wanted to join the project could do it. The reason for this as Corrado Demeo – Pluto, chairman of the Tuscan AGC explains, is that we do not intend to create events and exhibitions for experts, rather we want to present open spaces where it is possible to bring the audience in contact with a variety of expressions, in order to grow a sensibility for contemporary confrontation.
The quality revealed by this exhibition is simply determined by the energies devoted to the organization and the self-responsability of the participants.
Three works were selected by a jury, that did not have to agree but each juror chose the piece he considered most valuable according to the theme of the event and his own criteria. Also the public of the Vernissage was asked to choose their preferred piece and the visitors took this task extremely seriously by taking notes and examining all the pieces on exhibit with great attention.
The only false note was the bad weather, but at the end also this brought people to closer relations being forced to cramp under the few roofs in the wonderful garden. » (Doris Maninger)

Stefano Pedonesi – Ciondolo « La forza della natura »: Argento, sabbia colorata, cemento, mattone, plexyglass, plastica, corniola » / The power of nature » Pendant: silver, colored sand, cement, brick, plexyglass, plastic, carnelian
Corrado de Meo – ‘Eldorado’ – paper, acrylic paint, gold leaf

Corrado de Meo

Angelo Lomuscio

Annamaria Iodice – collana ‘Natura’
Graziano Barzetti

Massimo Ottavio Pavan - « la germogliazione » anelli di corian
Zero43 – ‘BORLOTTI IN SCATOLA’ – spilla in acciaio, argento, oro, perle e diamanti.

Patrizia Bonati

Maddalena Rocco

Maura Biamonti – “Olivo” – oxydized silver earrings
Catalina Brenes - untitled, bracelet- iron and silver

Simonetta Giacometti - ‘Unheimlich 1′  brooch, recycled plastic, silver, steel

Michalina Owczarek -  earring – silver, threads

Isabell Schaupp (DE) – brooch, wood, silver, enamel
Rallou Katsari (GR) “florentine”- silver, paint, pigment

Solveig Linke (DE) – “Blossom and Caducity”- latex,silver,glas,flowers.

Lucia Massei - ‘la-bella-addormentata’

Malaika Najem

Federico Vianello  – cactus ring

Anja Eichler - ‘Moscatelle 45′

Paolo Mazzeschi – collana

Museo di Storia Naturale del Mediterraneo
Villa Henderson
Via Roma 234
57100 Livorno (Italia)
tél : [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]