_{Image courtesy of MUVE}

Transformation. Six Swedish Artists
Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice
From 13 May to 1 October 2017

 

The goldsmith’s art and the 1990s, reinterpreted through the creations of six Swedish artists who have each explored their own exclusive paths, forms the subject of this exhibition at the White Room on the ground floor of Palazzo Mocenigo. As part of the MUVE Contemporaneo project, this new space, dedicated to temporary exhibitions and consistent in all respects with the identity of Palazzo Mocenigo as a textile and costume museum, will show artists’ work from the permanent collection at the National Museum of Sweden: Tobias Alm, Sara Borgegård Älgå, Hanna Hedman, Catarina Hällzon, Agnes Larsson and Märta Mattsson.

 

_{Image courtesy of Agnes Larsson}

 

Their works cross the boundary between design and contemporary art through the use of personal and innovative styles. The pieces are not conventional jewellery: subliminal messages, references and symbolism are contained in these aesthetically beautiful and fascinating ornaments. The selected pieces by curator Inger Wästberg – an art historian, author of Contemporary Swedish Art Jewellery (2013), and one of Sweden’s leading experts in art jewellery – successfully express how the world of jewellery can also be transformed into a reflective, artistic expression.

 

_{Image courtesy of Tobias Alm}

 

For example, Catarina Hällzon’s work acts as a comment on consumer society through using fish scales to illustrate how everything should be conserved and recycled. Similarly, Tobias Alm has created a series of tool belts as jewellery, leading to a question of typical gender representation and status structures in society.

 

_{Image courtesy of Agnes Larsson}

 

The exhibition will report on current trends in contemporary Swedish jewellery and contribute to the ongoing discussion around its categorization as fine art over craft. More than half of the six artists included in the exhibition have consciously chosen to work with simple, inexpensive materials such as Agnes Larsson’s horse hair necklaces, Catarina Hällzon’s imaginative use of salmon and perch skin and the cotton rope used in Sara Borgegård Älgå’s necklaces, emphasizing how artistic meaning can add more value to a piece than precious stones.

 

_{Image courtesy of Hanna Hedman}

 

The use of non-precious materials, redefines the values traditionally associated with the goldsmith’s art and subverts perceptions we usually hold regarding jewellery. The artists in this exhibition are all represented by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm – a wide and varied design collection including industrial design, conceptual fashion, fine craft and glass art. The museum continually presents the latest innovations within the contemporary Swedish jewellery scene, reflected through their cutting-edge programme of exhibitions and acquisitions.

 

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