The exhibition “LandJewelry” of the International Symposium of Contemporary Jewelry from Sweden will open at the Klaipėda Gallery of the Klaipėda Department of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (Bažnyčių St. 6) on May 12 at 5:30 pm.
LandJewelry is a project that took place on the island of Öland, Sweden, in the last days of August 2021. Eight jewelry artists from four different countries of the Baltic region met on the island to create art or, as the organizers call it, land jewelry. The artists worked with materials at hand in the surrounding landscape to create temporary works of art, reflecting on the challenges facing ecosystem that is of the Baltic Sea.
These include for example eutrophication, marine litter and declining biodiversity. Nine countries surround the Baltic Sea, with around 15 million people living on its shores. It is an intensively used ecosystem and one of the aims of this project is to communicate its ecological situation through the language of land art and through the lens of modern jewelry.
During the five days working on the coast of Segerstad in southeast Öland, the team created almost 30 “Land Jewels”, most of which were sculptural installations. The exhibition at the Klaipėda Gallery presents photographs of these works and a video of the pieces on site. In addition, in the exhibition you can also get acquainted with the previous jewelry work of each artist.
All the works in the symposium were left where they were created, with the exception of some non-biodegradable materials that the artists removed. Sooner or later, this land jewelry will decay and the materials from which it was created will once again become part of the surrounding nature. Traces of artist’s intervention will disappear. Last but not least these pieces are also simply an homage to this – our beautiful Baltic Sea.
The project was initiated and organized by Maja Breife (Sweden) and Wiebke Pandikow (Finland). Further participants: Aino-Astrid Gaedtke (Germany), Elli Hukka (Finland), Ingrid Berg (Sweden), Kajsa Wikström (Sweden) and Lithuanian artists Karina Kazlauskaitė and Lauryna Kiškytė.
Artists Maja Breife and Wiebke Pandikow will invite Klaipeda residents to take part in a land jewelry workshop at The Dutchman’s Cap on Saturday, May 14, at 12 noon – the body itself and the objects around us will become tools and materials in the creation of small pieces of art in the environment. Pre-registration by email is required: klaipeda.lds@gmail.com [1].
Sponsors: Klaipeda City Municipality Lithuanian Council for Culture
Curator – Neringa Poškutė-Jukumienė
Coordinator – Rosana Lukauskaitė
Our working hours: II–V – 10:00–18:00, VI – 11:00–16:00
The exhibition will run until June 4.