BUSINESS INSIGHTS / LITHUANIAN JEWELLERY REPORT We are glad that, after the quarantine has been imposed in Lithuania, we still managed to attend the Jubinale exhibition in Krakow which has not been cancelled, even though there were not many participants. I want to congratulate all the participants of this exhibition. Hopefully the Amberif exhibition in Gdansk (this interview took place on 23 July – editor's note) will not be cancelled and participants from European Union countries will have the opportunity to take part in it.
Amber Trip stands out from other exhibitions with its Art Jewellery Contest and Author Jewellery Zone which has been organised for three years in a row now. How did these events fare this year and what else was unique during the show? We are happy that the Art Jewellery Contest organised during the Amber Trip show is becoming an increasingly well-known and internationally recognised art jewellery platform. This year, 75 professional jewellers from 22 countries around the world (Taiwan, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Iran, Poland, Turkey, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico, Latvia, Greece, France, Austria, Belarus and Lithuania) competed in the Ecosight competition. For a number of years now, the
www.balticjewellerynews.com
participants attending the exhibition, helping them to communicate and learn from each other. And this project turned out to be very successful. I would also like to single out the exhibition “Inspired by Freedom” organised by the jewellery community and dedicated to Lithuania's Independence Day which we celebrate on March 11. The exhibition organised by the Lithuanian Jewellers' Association (Lietuvos autorinės juvelyrikos kūrėjų asociacija) displayed the works of 30 authors, and the number of the exhibition's participants symbolically matched the 30th anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania's independence. This exclusive exhibition was attended by creators of metal plastic and jewellery art representing different generations. The Amber Trip exhibition also included other exclusive showpieces such as the skeleton of a mammoth that lived at least 50,000 years ago and was found in Siberia, as well as works of art – sculptures made from mammoth bone, and a blue stone from Sweden. There were also creative workshops with wax, amber and enamel, as well as seminars providing information on what you need to know when buying jewellery, and how hydrogen is used in jewellery and Baltic amber in food production. For the second year in a row, a raw amber
39 –2020
commission of the competition has been chaired by Laima Kėrienė, professor at the Department of Metal Art and Jewellery of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The list of members of the commission also includes well-known names such as doctor of arts, philosopher and art critic Pille Veljataga, jeweller and founder of the jewellery school "Vilnensis" Darijus Gerlikas, Polish professor, artist and writer Giedyminas Jablonskis, as well as silversmith, jewellery designer, director of the Finnish Goldsmiths' Association and editor of Baltic Jewellery News magazine Henrik Kihlman, and Latvian jewellery artist, lecturer at the Department of Metal Design of the Latvian Academy of Arts and active participant in international artists' residencies and group exhibitions Rasma Pušpure. The Author Jewellery Zone was held for the third time and this year attracted the highest number of participants: 40 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, the United Kingdom and the USA. Author Jewellery Zone is like a separate exhibition presenting unique works of art and providing guests with a wonderful opportunity to talk to jewellers about their creative directions or to buy articles of jewellery that they like. The idea behind the Author Jewellery Zone was to build a bridge between wholesalers and art contest
p. 51
Art jewellery competition jury: Laima Kėrienė, Pille Veljataga, Rasma Pušpure, Giedyminas Jablonskis, Henrik Kihlman, Darijus Gerlikas.
B A LT I C J E W E L L E R Y N E W S
The urgent decision of the Lithuanian Government to ban mass events has obviously affected all the participants, buyers and guests of the Amber Trip show. Did you receive any support or compensation from the government or other institutions? In order to react quickly to the spread of the coronavirus in Lithuania, the exhibition has been closed as of March 13. However, the quarantine was put in place in our country on March 16, therefore Amber Trip has not been included in the list of companies eligible for subsidies. Amber Trip did apply to the Lithuanian Government for support and, although the voice of our exhibitors has not yet been heard, we hope to receive a response from the authorities sooner or later.