INTER-SCHOOL CONVERGENCE EVENING

In an event dedicated exclusively to schools specialising in the jewellery professions, the Ecole Boulle, France’s leading traditional crafts training centre, is hosting an evening of get-togethers and talks organised by PARCOURS BIJOUX. The idea is to bring together over 200 students from ten French schools (in Lyon, Valence, Saumur, Ploërmel […] and Paris), open their minds and give them a chance to meet each other and explore all the venues in the capital staging exhibitions by designers from within and outside France.

Avant-garde or auteur jewellery emerged in the 1960s, but though it spread to many countries, the movement stayed within the confines of an intellectual, creative microcosm. PARCOURS BIJOUX is keen to introduce this alternative vision provided by contemporary jewellery to wider audiences. The meeting between the schools is the first of its kind in the triennial festival. Hosted by the Ecole Boulle, and made possible by vital support from jewellery designer Cindy Chao, the TBRP group and the Robert Mazlo Endowment Fund for Art and Contemporary Art Jewellery, the evening is designed to encourage questioning and interactive exchanges, provide impetus and raise awareness among the young professionals of the future. They will be immersed in other formal, material and aesthetic languages where traditional skills are probed and challenged with unfettered daring.

The evening will feature two talks by leading figures in the jewellery world:

– Historian and writer Michèle Heuzé:
“I would like to share 4 jeweller’s experiences, 4 creative processes that provide a living definition of auteur jewellery and illustrate the questioning by and beyond the material.”

–  Contemporary jewellery artist Marine Dominiczak:
She will provide an overview of the history of contemporary jewellery: a territory of exploration where “Codes now involve a search for meaning through the object […] Jewellery is no longer a mere accessory, but is taking on a social role.”