TOUCH - Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER Collective
The 30th International Jewellery Competition TOUCH
The cyclical International Jewellery Competition is the leading event of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER organized by the Gallery of Art in Legnica since 1979. The competition is dedicated to the designers and creators of artistic jewellery and has been promoting creative explorations in the field of artistic jewellery and, at the same time, creative statements on the problems of the contemporary world for over 30 years. The theme of the last edition of the
Competition was TOUCH, a sense inseparably associated with the jewellery, carrying a special charge of intimacy and safety, but also - in times of a global pandemic and escalation of military conflicts - fear and danger.
The winners of the 30th International Jewellery Competition TOUCH were announced during the culmination of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER on May 13-14, 2022.
This time - in the online era - we would like to refer to the feature that defines jewellery in its most material and - at the same time - the most sensual aspect. Let us invoke touch - the first sense through which we get to know the world, which gives us a sense of security, intimacy and trust. Jewellery worn on the body, coming into contact with skin receptors, provoking haptic contact, has always been the wearer’s closest prop. We offer you a contemporary interpretation of this nostalgia in the hope that the objects of the most personal use will not be replaced by touch screens.
prof. Sławomir Fijałkowski
Just as a piece of jewellery that is worn all the time is only noticed when it is taken off or missing, in recent times human touch has been acutely noticeable by its absence. We have become most aware of the need for touch and connection but also the fear of touch as a source of contamination and danger. How can jewellery explore the sense of touch, physically and emotionally? What can the sense of touch convey? What sort of touch? How does it feel? Could it comfort you? Could it change you? What might its impact be? How can this non-visual characteristic of jewellery be communicated?
prof. Caroline Broadhead