Click to Enlarge
As part of the international art jewellery exhibition called “Schmuck – Munich Jewellery Week”, the Onassis Foundation scholar, artist Loukia Richards, curated the ‘Myths 2015’ exhibition which showcased the works of 17 Greek artists at the Weltraum Gallery in downtown Munich. Art Jewellery Forum, the international association of art critics, galleries, collectors and artists working in the jewellery sector, has ranked the exhibition as one of the 10 best in the Schmuck – Munich Jewellery Week.
The exhibition aimed to show that Greek legends are an endless source of inspiration, capable of being reworked in countless ways, shedding light on or giving answers to critical issues of concern to man and the questions that plague him in this modern age. Using jewellery as a medium, participants have interpreted their subject matter in light of their experience, thoughts, stimuli and life in Modern Greece.
“Another objective and goal we had at this critical time for Greece internationally, was to show that ours is a country that creates, that dares, that is forward-looking,” said the Loukia Richards. “As a ‘wearable’ art form, jewellery is an expressive medium capable, quite literally, of conveying our message to far shores”.
The artists’ works were set off by the two installations by German sculptor and co-curator of the exhibition, Christoph Ziegler, entitled Labyrinth and Forest of Madness. “With the first installation we seeked to show the impasses Greeks have been facing over the last 6 years of the crisis; with the Forest of Madness we tried to recreate the myth of Agave in a more abstract manner, with her running through the woods, driven insane by the god Dionysus, screaming triumphantly, and holding the head of her dead son in her hands, which she believes to be merely some animal carcass. That is pretty much the condition of Greece today, in our opinion,” says Richards. Two of the scholar’s own works inspired by our times also featured in the exhibition: The party is over! (which reflects the well-known phrase uttered by Jean-Claude Juncker) and Je suis Charlie (in honour of the victims of the terrorist attack in Paris).
The Schmuck – Munich Jewellery Week has been hosted in Bavaria’s capital every year since 1959, financed by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the City of Munich and the local Technical Chamber. It is Europe’s most important art jewellery exhibition, attracting the interest of collectors, galleries, artists and designers from around the world every year.
In 2013 and 2014 Loukia Richards also curated another two exhibitions of art jewellery entitled ‘Myths’ held in Berlin and Hamburg, under the aegis of the Consulate General of Greece in Hamburg.
Useful links:
http://www.myths2015.dehttp://www.artjewelryforum.org
http://www.myths2013.net
