What do you have in your hands?

“Jewellery is an element of daily ritual” *

Since 7,000 B.C., humans have been creating and wearing objects on their bodies using different materials and crafting forms that respond to a symbolic necessity present in all cultures. The objects that we call jewellery, have been used as part of religious cults and rituals, and as symbols of social status; in ancient times, jewellery was considered to be an extension of the body and it possessed a special meaning for the person and her/his environment. In modern society, the force of the symbolic meaning of the jewel weakened until Contemporary Jewellery began to develop. Contemporary Jewellery is charged with connotations that identify us as individuals, forming part of our own daily rituals.

What do you have in your hands? is the first action that the Bórax08001 collective carries out in different cities simultaneously: Barcelona, Camós and LLoret de Mar (Spain), Valparaíso (Chile), Berlín, Idar-Oberstein and Bad Tölz (Germany) and Mexico City (Mexico).

What do you have in your hands?
With this action, we approach ordinary people to introduce them to Contemporary Artistic Jewellery. Our goal is to bring the artistic circle in which artisitic jewellery develops closer to the people that have never heard of this term before and probably have a traditional idea of what jewellery is, i.e. merely an ornamental object deprived of symbolic, conceptual and artistical background.

We went out on the streets of different cities in Europe and Latin America searching for people that probably had never visited a Contemporary Jewellery show and had probably never heard about this concept. What do you have in your hands? is the question we ask them when they have the piece of jewellery in their hands, so that we can register the first impression the “object” has on the person.

The results of this action have been registered through photographic series and transcriptions. We hope to extend this action to more cities around the world in the future, in an ongoing effort to make Contemporary Artistic Jewellery familiar to anyone willing to discover new forms of artistic expression.

The Bórax08001 collective
2011

*Lupton, Ellen (curator specialized in contemporary artistic jewellery), Framing, The art of jewellery. Exhibition in print, 2007, Metalsmith (27)2, Oregon, USA.

Photograph of Isaac with Aline Berdichevsky's brooch

Photograph of Antonio with Carolina Gimeno's pendant

Photograph of Vanessa with Dalia Jurado's brooch

Photograph of Andrea with Andrea Nabholz's necklace

Photograph of Mr. Hartmann with Carolina Martínez Linares' brooch

Photograph of August with Cristina Martí Mató's brooch

Photograph of Josep with Gastón Rois' brooch

Photograph of Mark with Nelly Van Oost's necklace

Photograph of Andreas with Patricia Correia Domingues' necklace

Photograph of José Luis with Trinidad Contreras' brooch