ZONE WITHOUT BORDERS
CONTEMPORARY CZECH AND SLOVAK STUDIO JEWELLERY
ZONE WITHOUT BORDERS
The „ Zone Without Borders. Contemporary Czech and Slovak studio jewellery” exhibition presents 36 Czech and Slovak authors and introduces a selection of their present collections. The displayed objects should destroy myths and boundaries of what could be thought of as a jewel in the traditional sense. They do not have to be sober, restrained or representative. On the contrary, they go against the tide having their own attitude, they are bold and naturally appealing. There is no ambition to create an elegant fashion accessory, but an autonomous piece of art.
Marcela Kindl Steffanová, Tereza Vernerová Volná and Mária H. Nepšinská, the curators of the exhibition, have approached both renowned and inexperienced authors. The principal criterion of selection was the unique artistic expression of the pieces, while some of them are related to visual or plastic arts and other are tightly, both functionally and idealistically, connected with the wearer‘s body. The authors are creatively using traditional jewellers‘ materials, such as gold, silver or pearls, though they do not hesitate to experiment with outlandish materials. Besides other things, the exhibition presents jewellery made of hair, silicone, ropes, fragile chalk or even meticulously cultivated mould.
Viktoria Münzker
The variety of jewellery pieces from Czech Republic and Slovakia supports the fact that art does not have to respect political boundaries. Jewellers from both countries are communicating by means of their creation which seemingly did not even notice the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Many of the authors are bound by friendship, educational exchanges, symposia held in both counties or other forms of professional and even purely personal collaboration. All the participants together cross the frontier of lands and deep-rooted conceptions of how jewels should look like.
Jana Machatova
