25 for 25. Jewellery of the time of freedom (1989-2014)
The “25 for 25. Jewellery of the time of freedom” is a collective presentation of works by the leading jewellery designers, prepared by the Gold Silver Time Fair in collaboration with Legnica’s Art Gallery on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the political changes that took place in Poland in 1989. It is occasional in its nature, and its intention is to summarize the artistic and organizational achievements of Polish contemporary jewellery artists during the last 25 years (1989-2014).
The project consists of two parts: the first one is an exhibition of selected works of 25 artists – jewellery designers (the precisely specified number of authors emphasizes the symbolic nature of the project), the other one is the award of Honorary Distinctions entitled HALLMARK 25 to those who contributed the most to the art of jewellery of that period.
Due to the spontaneous circumstances and the extremely short time devoted to its implementation, the project could not exhaust the topic or serve as a complete summary of the past period. Therefore, please be aware of these restrictions as the participant and the viewer of the exhibition. Not everything could be shown and not everybody could be mentioned. This does not mean, however, that the organizers are not aware of the fact that many other people and companies in addition to those present at the exhibition have contributed to the achievements of modern Polish goldsmithery. A lot has happened in the field of jewellery in the past quarter of a century. Deep and numerous consequences of political, economic and socio-cultural transformations of the political system have fundamentally influenced the shape of the entire jewellery market today, both in its commercial and in its educational and artistic parts. Economic, legal, and, above all, mental re-evaluation has resulted in new phenomena, trends, artistic attitudes; there have appeared more artists and companies dealing in jewellery. It all means that the past 25 years for Polish jewellery are definitely interesting and fruitful. Thus, the “25 for 25” project is to symbolically acknowledge this fact, to emphasize the importance and role of the changes that have taken place, and draw attention to the unquestionable achievements of the whole community of jewellers.
The exhibition presents the works of those artists who have particularly distinguished themselves with their creativity and achievements in the field of jewellery. It shows the most characteristic trends and transformations of artistic jewellery during the last quarter of a century. At the exhibition there are both artists who at the start of the political changes already functioned on the jewellery market and later developed their concepts strengthening their position in the field and those creators whom the new system has enabled a debut, who have taken advantage of the new situation and new, favorable conditions to go on stage with impetus and become successful both in Poland and abroad.
The artists have been chosen for the exhibition by the Project Program Committee composed of well-known artists and connoisseurs of jewellery such as Prof. Irena Huml, Magdalena Kwiatkiewicz, Katarzyna Rzehak, Wanda Gontarska, Andrzej Bielak, Prof. Andrzej Szadkowski.
The other part of the project is a symbolic acknowledgment to the most deserving people, institutions and organizations, related to the broadly defined goldsmithery, whose activities in the past 25 years have had the greatest impact on the shape and development of contemporary jewellery art in Poland. The selection of the winners was preceded by a poll to choose the Designer of the 25th anniversary, Popularizer of the 25th anniversary and the Organizer of the 25th anniversary, addressed to the whole community of the jewellery industry. The organizers have decided to grant awards in three categories to honor not only individual artists, distinguished by their artistic achievements, but also the institutions that affect the shape, development, image and status of jewellery, organizing exhibitions, symposia and other artistic, educational and promotional events and popularizing knowledge of contemporary Polish jewellery. The laureates – three in each category – have been chosen by the Honorary Distinctions Jury, composed of the members of the Project Program Committee, taking into account the results of the poll. The names of the winners will be announced during a jubilee gala of the 15th edition of the Gold Silver Time Fair.
Congratulations to all the winners and participants of the exhibition.
Participants of the exhibition:
Andrzej Bielak
Paulina Binek
Andrzej Boss
Agnieszka Bruzda
Jacek Byczewski
Bogumił Bytomski
Piotr Cieciura
Sławomir Fijałkowski
Marcin Gronkowski
Joanna i Tadeusz Jaworscy
Paweł Kaczyński
Zofia i Witold Kozubscy
Cezary Łutowicz
Lucyna i Marek Nieniewscy
Jacek Ostrowski
Kamilla Rohn
Magdalena i Tomasz Stajszczak
Jan Suchodolski
Andrzej Szadkowski
Marcin Tymiński
Jarosław Westermark
Arkadiusz Wolski
Alicja i Jakub Wyganowscy
Marcin Zaremski
Hanna i Jacek Zdanowscy.
