HOLOWNIA – a show of works non-qualified for the 33rd International Jewellery Competition WOW Effect!

Venue: Old Town Hall Modrzejewska Theatre 39 Main Square
Open: 28.03. – 3.06. 2025
Opening: 09.05.2025, 18:00

Opening hours: 
Monday – Sunday: 08:00 – 20:00

Holownia - show of works non-qualified for the 33rd International Jewellery Competition WOW Effect!

Holownia is an exhibition of works not selected for the International Jewellery Competition. Its name comes from the traditional and recognizable exhibition space – the hall of the Old City Hall. By visiting both exhibitions – the works qualified for the 33rf International Jewellery Competition WOW Effect! and the Holownia exhibition – visitors can compare the jury's choices with your own views, opinions and assessments.

The cyclical International Jewellery Competition is the leading event of Legnica SILVER Festival, organised by the Gallery of Art in Legnica since 1979.

The competition is dedicated to designers and creators of artistic jewellery. It promotes creative explorations within jewellery and, at the same time, creative expressions on the problems of contemporary world. The theme of the current edition of the Competition is: WOW Effect!.

Works of 268 artists from 42 countries have been submitted in response to the Competition open call. The jury selected works by 44 artists from 22 countries for the main exhibition.

Felieke van der Leest – Norway

Punkinette brooch, textile, plastic animal, silver, ethylene-vinyl acetate, cubic zirconia, germanium, crochet, 240x60x30 mm, 2024

Martina Obid Mlakar – Slovenia

The hidden bubbles of WOW brooch, soap, silver 925, goldplated, oxidized, 38x38x15 mm, 2024

Idea:

Is art supposed to be a WOW effect? Is jewellery supposed to be it? After the post-humanist turn, the emptiness and delusion of discourses in the crisis of humanity, we no longer expect jewellery to be just pessimistic malediction and dystopian prophecies, but also hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, an antidote to wipe away apocalyptic tears. A magic wand that will make the world seem a more beautiful place than it actually is. We expect a WOW effect!

Justyna Teodorczyk, PhD

Why a theme at all?
Of course, we would like the efforts of artists, designers, jewellery makers - especially those connected with the preparation of a new competition entry - to focus on socially and culturally important issues. It is about the quality of the exhibition itself, but also about a pretext for discussions in which not only politicians, activists and opinion leaders should have their say.

The theme is important.
It introduces ordering criteria, facilitates comparisons, provokes reflection. We determined this many years ago, and we consistently adhere to this principle, while observing that the responses are becoming increasingly superficial, safely uncontroversial, politically and aesthetically correct.

But...
...perhaps it is in the area of aesthetics, which has been neglected recently, that it is most difficult today to come up with innovative solutions

– that WOW! effect – surprising, inspiring, unprecedented?
Surely it is still possible!

Even in jewellery / especially in jewellery. 

Prof. Sławomir Fijałkowski

Jury:

Eva Fernandez Martos (Spain / United Kingdom)

Märta Mattsson (Sweden)

Barbara Schmidt (Germany)

Sławomir Fijałkowski (Poland)

Paweł Kaczyński (Poland)