BOUNDARIES
A way to Paradise
Boundaries are essential to being human – setting them, maintaining them, defying them and overstepping them. God started this endless game by banishing people from Paradise for a petty reason – a barely bitten apple. From there, everything happened at the speed of light: everyday existence, ethics, politics, morality, art, etc. - more and more areas became an endless and often bloody scene for boundary fanatics and sceptics. The epic history of erecting, overthrowing and overstepping various lines, barriers, boundaries and taboo is still the meaning and determinant of human history and everyday life of us all. The steps are always the same: first, we make up the boundaries and then we destroy them. It seems like an absurd thing to do. But, is life without boundaries possible, if at the same time setting them out defines our identity and individuality, and is the first step to recognising our identification (personal, collective, national, religious)? Are there any boundaries, which must not be crossed, are impossible to cross or simply can not be crossed by us? Don’t they keep us from destroying ourselves? Is there any moral aspect to them, or only a practical one? Art is an irreplaceable testing ground for destroying boundaries and canons. It was created to safely experiment with overstepping more than aesthetic norms and limits. Let’s then ask about the ‘identity’ of jewellery, and what kind of boundaries it is defined by. Are those aesthetic, functional, substantial boundaries or ethic ones? Are we free to overstep them, push them and destroy them? Will then jewellery still be jewellery? What is more, let’s ask if jewellery can tell in its own words something about boundaries other than its own? Can it refer to other aspects of human life such as sensuality, morality, religion, social reality, politics, statehood, business? We are infected with an incurable atavistic ‘Paradise complex’, we always dream of life without boundaries. We live in the times when overstepping boundaries knows no boundaries. Ironically, that is how we fulfil our eternal need and crave for freedom. We want to be like at the beginning. But is it possible to return to Paradise?
The jewellery contest in Legnica, the purpose of which is a critical reflection on life’s and art’s crucial issues, is characterised by a specific topic which generally covers the recent artistic, social, political or economic context. For instance, in the previous decade, when postmodern art was highly popular, the topic was ‘Deconstruction-Reconstruction’, while the topic ‘Absolute Beauty’ was a reaction to the relativism of value (and not only) in aesthetics, and ‘Revolt’ was an answer to the Indignants Movement (indignados); the ‘Sexy’ and “Scandal” competitions were dedicated to revealing the mechanisms of autocreation, and the ‘Classic’ topic – to finding and redefining antic codes of modernity. The current topic – Boundaries – although inspired by specific geopolitical situations (annexation of the part of Ukraine, wars in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, etc.) has in fact a broader and deeper meaning, and is the search for reasons of all our limitations (natural and cultural), finding the mechanisms of creating any boundaries whatsoever and the sense of maintaining them, and in the end asks about the identity of homo sapiens. About the identity of every one of us.
We remind that on the 9th April starts the jury session of the 24th Legnica International Jewellery Competition BOUNDARIES!!!
Jury members:
Sławomir Fijałkowski (Poland)
Suska Mackert (Germany)
Ruudt Peters (The Netherlands)
Zuzanna Skalska (Poland/The Netherlands)
We cordially invited to participation in
24th International Legnica Jewellery Competition BOUNDARIES in the frame of Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2015
Deadline for sending works: 31st of March 2015 r.!!!
Download the Entry form (click)
We invite you sincerely to Legnica, especially on the 15th – 16th May 2015, when the culmination of the Legnica Jewellery Festival takes place.