LAURA SIMA

Designer biography:

Laura Sima is a jewelry designer with interdisciplinary work practices between graphics and objects. She has a background in Social Communication and holds a Ph.D. in Philology from the University of Bucharest, Doctoral School Space, Image, Text, Territory, Center of Excellence in Image Studies. Since 2017, she has attended courses at Assamblage School of Contemporary Jewelry, taught by Valentina Caprini, Jennifer Wells, David Sandu, and Andreia Gabriela Popescu. In 2022, she participated in workshops "In the Field of the Seeker" and "Material Narratives" led by Gisbert Stach and Melanie Isverding, organized by the Goethe Institute Bucharest. Laura Sima has exhibited works at Milano Jewelry Week, Jewelry Drops section, SCAF International Festival of Contemporary Art in Sibiu, contemporary jewelry section, Romanian Jewelry Week 1.0 and 2.0. She has also participated in LEAF (Limited Edition Art Fair) with works of graphics and contemporary jewelry and had her first solo exhibition in 2024, Locus Sigilli, at Celula de Artă (Art Cell) with and exhibition about jewelry translated in graphic images (seals and linoprinting).

Collection concept:

Mirabilia Urbis Collection

Based on a concept by Ana-Cristina Irian

"Attention, falling plaster" is written on many building facades in Bucharest, directing the gaze downward to small ephemeral traces of habitation on the street. This gaze triggers the recovery of small fragments of buildings, lost urban landmarks.These signs of habitation are envisioned as reliquary-like jewelry inspired by the Mirabilia urbis paradigm. A community's imagination is nurtured by what it cannot fully understand. The emotion stirred by an old building comes from the mystery of its unseen interior, where imagination replaces sight. Wonder/mirabilia, accompanied by surprise or astonishment, captivates us within a system of relations. Today, wonder/mirabilis is caught in the speed of structural rise and fall. Each jewelry piece captures a dwelling space with precise coordinates and micro-histories on the city's map, still fragile or preserved in matter. These pieces anchor personal thoughts in relation to evoked living spaces and their existence over time. The Mirabilia Urbis collection plays between the wonder before an old building fragment and admiration for it: memory, surprise, astonishment, and violence intersect between the object and observer.

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Ana-Cristina Irian is a visual arts researcher, curator, and research-based artist working with photo archives. With a background in sociology (from Trento & Regensburg) and visual anthropology (from Bucharest & Perugia), she holds a PhD in visual arts from UNARTE and is a professional member of the Society for Visual Anthropology/American Anthropological Association. Her artistic practice, guided by the motto No one left behind, emphasizes memory objects, integrating photographic material into contemporary artworks.

Laura Sima (Romania)

LAURA SIMA

Designer biography:

Collection concept: