From 28 April to 2 May 2022, Florence will host the fourth edition of Florence Jewellery Week, dedicated to the relationship between artistic research, craftsmanship, design and new technologies. The entire city will host exhibitions, seminars and meetings featuring renowned and innovative goldsmiths on the international scene. This initiative was strongly desired and supported by Le Arti Orafe, the prestigious Academy of Goldsmiths founded in 1985 by Giò Carbone, who was the first in Italy to set up the week dedicated to jewellery in 2015, preceded in 2005 by the biennial exhibition called “PREZIOSA”. This year the event was curated by Giò Carbone and Alice Rendon. They, working in tandem, have developed a rich programme to tell the story of jewellery in various forms, embracing artistic research, craftsmanship, new technologies and sustainability. “FJW is an opportunity to meet and reflect on the culture and significance that jewellery has had and continues to have, on the symbolism, wisdom, complexity and diversity of which it is an emblem and historical testimony. By combining past and present, tradition and modernity, the project aims to reaffirm the links between artistic research, craftsmanship, design and new technologies, in a synergic and multidisciplinary perspective,” says Giò Carbone. The FJW programme opens with PREZIOSA, the main exhibition. Set up in the Galleria delle Carrozze of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, it will host a selection of famous international goldsmith artists: Lauren Kalman, Anya Kivarkis, Rein Vollenga, Sam Tho Duong, Jayne Wallace, Kazumi Nagano, Conversation Piece (Beatrice Brovia & Nicolas Cheng), Ana Rajcevic and Barbara Paganin. Florence Jewelry Week aims to give voice to new trends in contemporary jewellery. In addition to jewellery, the exhibition will feature wearable sculptures that aim to transform the wearer, developing a new concept of “decoration” that redesigns bodies, reshaping their aesthetics and identity. A sort of hybrid and symbiotic manipulation.
Another focus is the dematerialisation of the object in the digital age and the possibility of creating jewellery with multimedia content. Ample space will also be given to upcycling, or designer recycling, a practice that provides new prestige for recycled materials by renewing their destination by master craftsmen.
The Bollmann Collection – Palazzo del Pegaso, located in front of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, will host a wide selection of one of the most important private collections of contemporary jewellery, owned by Karl and Heidi Bollmann. For the occasion, several pieces of jewellery created by some of the major protagonists of “New Jewelry” will be on display: Manfred Bischoff, Peter Chang, Yasuki Hiramatsu, Fritz Maierhofer, Bruno Martinazzi, Francesco Pavan, Ruudt Peters, Gerd Rothmann, Peter Skubic.
The host: GIOVANNI CORVAJA
The excellence guest at FJW 2022 will be the most famous creation of master Giovanni Corvaja, the extraordinary headgear woven in the noblest of metals and part of the prestigious Golden Fleece series. Will display this masterpiece in one of the rooms of the Palazzo del Pegaso.
The PREZIOSA YOUNG exhibition – On the Lungarno Guicciardini, in the elegant Galleria di Palazzo Coveri, the works of the young winning artists of the international PREZIOSA YOUNG competition (Xinia Guan, China/USA, Anne Lahn Hornbæk Hansen, Denmark, Pilynn Siriphanich, Thailand, Charlotte Vanhoubroeck, Belgium, Zhipeng Wang, China/Germany) promoted by LAO, to highlight new talents in the field of research jewellery, will be on display.
The lectures – On the central days of the event, 30 April and 1 May, the Sala Vanni in Piazza del Carmine will host various talks given by experts in jewellery, design and the visual arts: Roberta Bernabei, Maria Laura La Mantia, Paola Stroppiana, Federica Fontana, Carla Riccoboni, Barbara Schmidt, Nantia Koulidou, and some of the invited artists: Conversation Piece, Lauren Kalman, Ana Rajcevic, Anya Kivarkis and Jayne Wallace.
PREZIOSA MAKERS – An important novelty of this edition is the Preziosa Makers section, set up from 28 April to 1 May in the ancient Scuderie di Palazzo Corsini al Prato and organised in collaboration with Artigianato e Palazzo, and which will offer for the first time a space dedicated to the sale of designers and goldsmiths.
Project Signs on the Face: an exhibition with the objects created during the seminar/workshop led by Carla Riccoboni and coordinated by Alice Rendon, supported by LAO and sponsored by important associations: AGC, ADI Toscana and ANPIA. The project results will be presented in the rooms adjacent to the Galleria delle Carrozze in Palazzo Medici Riccardi. They will retrace the fundamental stages of a collective design experience that led to the creation of a series of facial jewels, the fruit of the shared efforts of the group of participants. In addition, at LAO’s headquarters in Via dei Serragli 104, alongside the work of LAO lecturers and students, a showcase will be set up to document the academic practice of research through jewellery, with projects by some of the PhD students of Roberta Bernabei, Professor of Design and Creative Arts at Loughborough University.
MIDA (International Handicrafts Exhibition), 23 April-2 May
LAO and FJW will be present throughout the entire event at MIDA mostrartigianato.it/artigianato-futuro in the fascinating space of the Polveriera at the Fortezza da Basso. Students’ and lecturers’ works will be presented, but there will be small seminars and free demonstrations open to all. The central part of the exhibition will host a selection of contemporary jewellery from the LAO collection, with references and information about the FJW 2022 programme. For more information, see www.preziosa.org
5-STAR JEWELLERY ITINERARY. Eight of Florence’s most prestigious 5-star hotels will host pieces by some of the artists featured in the main exhibitions: Dimora Palanca, Lungarno, Regency, Savoy, The Place, The Westin Excelsior, Villa Cora, Ville sull’Arno
SIDE EVENTS
Signs on the face Locali del Circolo dipendenti di Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Via dei Ginori, 14. Exhibition of the collection of jewellery/facial objects made during the seminar/workshop conducted by Carla Riccoboni and coordinated by Alice Rendon. In the school premises, in Via dei Serragli 104, next to the works of LAO teachers and students, a room will be dedicated to documenting the academic practice of RESEARCH THROUGH JEWELLERY, told through the most interesting projects of some of the PhD students of the RJC Lab for Research Jewellery and Craft, Wanshu Li, Yuxin Li, Yajie Hu, and Yueyang Sun, supervised by Roberta Bernabei, a teacher at the School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University. Exhibition “There is fashion and fashion. Florence is a jewel”, the exhibition celebrating the Florentine and Tuscan goldsmith style. A tribute to the Florentine and Tuscan goldsmith’s art: this is “C’è modo e moda“, the exhibition contest that CNA Florence www.firenze.cna.it , has organised on the theme “Recovering memory with an eye to the future“.
A true celebration of the Florentine artistic tradition, which has its roots in Etruscan times and continued into medieval Florence and the Renaissance that made the city, its arts and crafts famous throughout the world. This exhibition represents a spotlight on the present-day heirs of internationally renowned artists of the calibre of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello and Luca della Robbia. They trained in the goldsmiths’ workshops. “A way to stimulate, represent and enhance, within the most prestigious Italian exhibition in the field of contemporary and research goldsmithing, the current Florentine-Tuscan School, strong in centuries of tradition, workmanship and techniques peculiar (from fretwork to engraving bulino, chiselling, niello, cuttlefish bone fusion and wire working, to name but a few), and at the same time capable of interpreting the contemporary world and designing the future of jewellery thanks to the perfect symbiosis of art and craftsmanship,” explains Federico Vianello, president of CNA Firenze Goldsmiths. The master goldsmiths who will be exhibiting their creations have been selected based on the theme by a unique, prestigious scientific commission (Laura Astrologo Porché, a professional journalist in the Jewelry & Watches sector and influencer, Renato Campanelli, who is also a member of the jury). Watches and influencer Renato Campara, goldsmith and restorer of period jewellery; Bianca Cappello, jewellery historian and critic. Eugenia Gadaleta is a lecturer and communication and marketing consultant in the jewellery and fashion sectors. And Guido Solari, owner of Scuola Orafa Ambrosiana and SOALAB & FACTORY in Milan) Who will reward those who stand out for their aesthetics, technical ability and compliance with the theme. The exhibition (28 April-2 May, Limonaia di Palazzo Medici Riccardi) will also host collateral events linked to the world of fashion through fashion performances organised by CNA Federmoda.
Fratelli Piccini Boutique. On the Ponte Vecchio since 1903 www.fratellipiccini.com
From 28 to 30 April, themed shop windows with the presentation of the Bloom collection dedicated to rebirth. Open visits by appointment. In particular, on 29 April at 5 p.m. there will be a meeting with the creative director Elisa Tozzi Piccini, who will show guests some jewellery of particular artistic and artisanal interest.
Firenze Artigiana Insolita 29 April from 15:00 to 18:30. An itinerary through Florentine artisan excellence organised by Confartigianato Imprese Firenze. I, therefore, invite my readers to visit this fantastic event that will leave its mark on the panorama of artistic jewellery.
Article edit by Laura Astrologo Porché
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