SILVER 2015
The SILVER Festival is the oldest, the biggest and the most significant artistic jewellery event in Poland and one of the biggest in Europe. It is an absolutely unique opportunity to see 1,500 pieces from 50 countries in one place and time. The Gallery of Art in Legnica has prepared for the 36th part of the Festival over 20 exhibitions of avant-garde jewellery and a number of events like vernissages, a symposium, a concert, happenings, film screenings, competitions, workshops and art campaigns.
Except for the exhibitions of the 24th Legnica International Jewellery Competition BOUNDARIES (including over 600 pieces from 40 countries), you should also see individual retrospective exhibitions of Europe designers. The About the Artists series will present artists from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland and two from South Korea. It is also an opportunity to see the latest movements of the Small Design as shown in the Academy of Fine Arts in Wismar (Germany) and Vilnius (Lithuania) within the “Silver Schools” series. A whole array of prominent modern jewellers will be presented as a part of international collective exhibitions: of four lecturers and students of the School of Design in Pforzheim (Germany); 13 Argentinian jewellers (Sur O No Sur). Some world-renowned artists, this time dealing with amber, will be seen as a part of three projects: Amber Chamber – under the custody of a German designer Heidemarie Herb, Gdańsk Amber Biennale, founded by Wim Vandekerckhove, the owner of the Villa De Bondt gallery in Ghent (Belgium) and Sławomir Fijałkowski, Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk; as well as Amberif Design Award 2014 – the International Fair of Amber, Jewellery and Gemstones organized in Gdańsk for 7 years. There will also be “young blood” – provided by a post-competition exhibiton Preziosa Young 2015 which is an initiative of Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School & Academy in Florence, dedicated for young avant-garde designers. As every year, you will be able to see jewellery ideas from all over the world in Holownia – a local “exhibition of rejects” of the International Jewellery Competition which receives ca. 90% of objects entered into the competition.
The Polish artistic jewellery will be seen in Legnica in a few stages. Within the “Debuts” series you will see two young artists – Antonina Maria Łęcicka (AFA in Łódź) and Karolina Szymanowska (AFA in Wrocław). The jewellery of designers active nationally in the second part of the 20th century and currently will be presented at two exhibitions: 25 out of 25. Jewellery of the Time of Freedom – a retrospective of designers from the quarter-century of an independent Poland; an exhibition of jewellery groups which were active in the past or are still active nowadays, as well as a jubilee collective exhibition of several dozens of members of the Goldsmithing Artists’ Association on the organization’s 25th anniversary of activity. Also noteworthy is an unusual – due to the arrangement – exhibition Z Jedwabnego my, created by Piotr Rybaczek, the owner of Galeria La Basilica in Barcelona, presenting works of Polish artists inspired by Anna Bikont’s book of the same title.
Unusual arrangements of jewellery exhibitions may be seen from 28th April to June in 8 venues in the city centre of Legnica (the Gallery of Art, Ring Gallery, Satyrykon Gallery, Silver Gallery Under the Quail’s Basket, Niello Gallery, Museum of Copper, Legnica Culture Centre, Old City Hall). On 15th-16th May a culmination of the Festival will take place, which means vernissages of artists from all over the world, announcement of the results of the International Jewellery Competition BOUNDARIES, shows, screenings, workshops, happenings, a concert, a seminar Boundaries of the Global Art. Entrance to all festival events is free.
