Gray Area, First Iinternational Encounter Of Contemporary Jewellery
Latin America - Europa
Why?
Although the mastership of Latin American goldsmiths has been well known throughout the world, there is a facet of Latin American jewellery making that has barely reached beyond its continental boundaries: a new generation of jewellery makers from Latin America is interested in observing and relating to jewellery outside its conventional frame. Somehow, jewellery makers from Latin America have not yet gained access to the international arena of contemporary jewellery, which seems to be lead by an eminently western discourse. The new Latin American Jewellery is the sensible and varied product of a unique historical process and it is able to reflect the region's dynamic mix of cultures and its socio-political realities, as well as the heritage of ancestral goldsmithing techniques and the abundance of materials that exist in an incredibly vast and diverse continent. The fresh, intense, creative and very personal work of these jewellery makers represent and nurture the culture they live in, and it can only contribute to enrich and diversify the international landscape of contemporary jewellery
On the other hand, jewellery makers, curators, collectors, art historians and contemporary art museums through Europe, recognize the cultural role of contemporary jewellery as a medium for analysis, experimentation, individual expression and cultural communication.
With its indisputable ability to provoke, critique, record, transmit, and generate meanings, qualities, and ideas, contemporary jewellery is able to engage individuals in a deep and personal way, and it can also forge common bonds among groups. By allowing for a wide variety of individual responses, contemporary jewellery produces a different kind of collective, asking people to reinvent their world to accommodate these new creations. However, these are all notions that have not yet reached the Latin American audience in a consistent, collective way.
Both our continents are missing the opportunity of an enriching experience.
The Symposium
In an era of globalization, cultural reciprocity is fundamental. Learning about others does not only help us to understand and appreciate from what we considered as foreign, but also to learn about ourselves. Let’s not forget that diversity, difference of opinion, and divergent artistic proposals are a good thing for a discipline that is working its way to recognition. Gray Area will be a five day symposium focused on artistic and scholastic encounters between Europe and Latin America, as well as on intra-Latin American exchanges, addressing and reformulating the ideological and practical construction of contemporary jewellery, examining its current state of development in both continents, and respectively exploring and proposing the present and future exchange between Latin American and European individuals and networks.
This symposium aims to promote understanding and appreciation of the diverse ways to view, experience, and create jewellery, to encourage cultural exchange among jewellery makers in Latin America and Europe and to combine forces to expand the audience and market for this exciting discipline.
Gray Area will bring together approximately forty speakers from Latin American and European countries. The multidisciplinary panel includes jewellery makers, graduate students, art critics, art historians, gallery managers, collectors, and speakers from other disciplines relevant to topics to be addresses. They have been invited on the basis of their affinities, but also on the tensions between their discourses and practices in order to create a stimulating and challenging discussion that leads to the exchange of ideas and the proposal of future joint projects.
The symposium is open for emerging and established jewellery makers and artists, students from the design, art and jewellery academies, art historians and critics, scholars from the arts, craft and design disciplines, museum and gallery members, art and jewellery collectors, public interested in the subject. Panel and audience will interact through a series of lectures, dialogues and round tables.
Registrations for the symposium will be open as from October 1st 2009. Visit our REGISTER page for more information.
You can also visit our pages PROGRAM and PARALLEL EVENTS to learn more about the contents, lecturers and schedule of the symposium as well and the details of the exhibitions and social events. These pages will be periodically updated.
If you wish to download a PDF presentation with more information of Gray Area, please click HERE
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us at: info@grayareasymposium.org