10
victory
Report by Dr. Jurgita LUDAVICIENE
T
he “Amber Trip” exhibition has been held for already ten years. No doubt, the emergence of this event was accompanied by high hopes, expectations and ambitions. One of the most intriguing ambitions was to exhibit an artistic program
alongside with the commercial exposure and producers’ profiles. This led to the emergence of the thematic competitions for artists, where the jewellery works not only from Lithuania but also from Estonia, the Netherlands, Greece, France, Germany and Finland were exposed. This artistic component of the exhibition has become an important part and an additional object of attraction for visitors, who each year were able to observe the implementation of a variety of topics by a number of authors from different countries by means of jewellery. On the tenth year of existence of the exhibition, the topic certainly has had to refer to the joyful fact that the “Amber Trip” has managed to maintain its existence. Thus, the number ten reminded that we have something to celebrate, however, the most important thing in the competition, namely the development of the contemporary jewellery, must not be forgotten. “No. 10. Victoria” suggested the authors turning to the jewellery of the Victorian period by transferring it to the modern forms; by touching the stempunk style; by recalling every Victoria met in their lives (since it is one of the more frequent feminine names around the world) and finally, by appealing to victory. Because after constant confronting and overcoming difficulties, the ten-year anniversary is surely a victory. The competition involved forty-nine authors from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Germany, Finland and other countries who provided the original interpretations of the topic. Nevertheless, as it was expected, most of the authors associated jewellery objects with their own personal experiences – victories or defeats. It is obvious that the historical digression or the desire to follow the latest trends in the world of jewellery attracted much less artists. Ruta Nicajiene represented the steampunk style, meanwhile Eeeva Wornell associatively linked her work with the Victorian mourning jewellery. In some works, the artists invoked the pop-culture imagery, which in combination with amber, considered to be sacral in Lithuania, created irony in works; others used non-traditional materials; yet other works focused on the technology and the combination of amber with titanium or enamel. However, the clear leader among the authors failed to be found: the competition of the year 2013 showed that most of the first ten works, i. e. the finalists’ works are of a similar artistic and technical level. Therefore, it was reflected in the selection of prizemen: the first two places were shared by Rasma Puspure (Latvia) and Dite Dilginiene (Lithuania), who managed to combine the craft mastery and non-traditional materials in their works. The third place was occupied by Nauris Nashlenas (Lithuania) and special diplomas were awarded to Yuriy Bilkov ir Yuriy Velikotskij (Russia), Ela Pavinskiene (Lithuania), and Gerhard Helmer (Germany).
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LITHUANIAN JEWELLERY REPORT
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