Creativity Contest – The posing jewel
By Creativity Oggetti and Susanna Maffini
From October 3rd to November 15th 2014
Inauguration on Friday, October 3rd at 6.00 p.m.

After thirteen years of activity, Creativity Oggetti will be opening it’s new venue in the center of Turin; the showroom and art gallery will be hosting the first edition of an international competition arranged for jewelry designers and artists. Three good reasons to celebrate with Creativity Oggetti that for the occasion will be setting up the exhibit: “Creativity Contest – The posing jewel”. Creativity Oggetti, an arts’ space in the heart of Turin, dedicated to the Applied Arts, jewellery and bijoux, launches an international competition aimed specifically at jewellery designers and artists. The objective of this competition is based on the research of various materials, forms and innovations, with an award and prize of professional photographic services. The title of the competition and of the exhibition to follow, is “Creativity Contest - The Posing Jewel”. In addition to being a professional opportunity for the participants, its goal is also to be a playful exhibition for visitors who will be involved in voting.

The interpreters of works, who stand out for their research of alternative materials, concept and shapes, are the following twenty-three artists: Stefanis Alexandres (Greece/United States of America), Silvia Beccaria (Italy), Sofia Beilharz (Germany), Maria Cristina Bellucci (Italy), Isabelle Busnel (France/UK), Clara Del Papa (Venezuela), Maria Diana and Sara Kirschen (Italy), Francesca Gabrielli (Italy), Lucilla Giovanninetti (Italy), Mirka Janeckova (Czech Republic/UK), Iro Kaskani (Cyprus), Erato Kouloubi (Greece), Mia Know (South Korea/Germany), Salome Lippuner (Switzerland), Viktoria Münzker (Slovak/Austria), Irene Palomar (Argentina), Jelka Quintelier (Belgium/UK), Giulia Savino (Italy/Egypt), Chiara Scarpitti (Italy), Camilla Teglio (Italy), Luca Tripaldi (Italy), Barbara Uderzo (Italy), Violaine Ulmer (France).

It will be the public, together with the jury, who shall award the prizes at the end of the contest. The best work, in recognition of outstanding creation, will be rewarded as first prize: a still life photographic service of the winner’s entire collection, realized by the photographer Federica Cioccoloni at her studio. In a playful atmosphere, hence, this metaphorical pentagram of creativity defining the poetical course, where the senses are wakened by the close dialogue between artists/designers and their own creations; photography becoming the interpreter of jewels is able to perceive and enhance their peculiarities; the art gallery is a place of comparison and exchange. Handcrafted techniques and industrial technologies find their balance in the challenge to cross the boundaries of the art, fashion and design. This digression corresponds to the awareness of the vulnerability of the jewels – in terms of fragility, fleetingness, temporariness – considering the nature of their materials: silkworm’s cocoons, fabric, paper, wood, porcelain, ceramic, resin, glass, rubber, synthetic sponge…etc. Their “immortality” is granted by the camera, which in the synthesis of the two final shots playing out the duality of the “said/not said”. For “Creativity Contest – The posing jewels “ Federica Cioccoloni’s photographs follow a dual track. On the one hand she tells us the story of the jewel, described in its three dimensional and recognizable qualities; colors and materials, and on the other hand using a macro lens she forces an intrusion which frees the subject from its own objectivity. It’s here, in the second shot, completely disconnected from the first, where emotion, abstraction, future, memory, exploration, subconscious, freedom, identity, space, and symmetry merge.

1st prize to Iro Kaskani 
for materials and forms and keep the right distance from conventional predictability 

2nd prize ex aequo 
to Mirka Janeckova jury vote
to Erato Kouloubi visitor vote 
the jewel, that for form and material is found to be particularly suitable for the realization of the macro photographic

INFORMATION
Creativity Contest – The posing jewel
By Creativity Oggetti and Susanna Maffini Via Carlo Alberto, 40/f – Turin
www.creativityoggetti.it
Texts on the Catalogue written by Manuela De Leonardis and Susanna Maffini;
photographs by Federica Cioccoloni;
graphic project by Barbara Sales.