Time Travels

Art Aurea’s summer edition 2-2022 is not about science fiction, but it is about expanding consciousness.

What are the roles of art and craft? In the summer 2022 print edition, we take a look at an aspect that typically preoccupies science-fiction authors under the title “Time Travel.” If you wish, you can even see a reference to the novel “The Time Machine” by the English author H. G. Wells. In the story, which has also been filmed, a scientist named George travels with the aid of his time machine far into the future, where he encounters the Elois in the year 802,701. The Elios are ruled by the Morlocks, who live underground. In a library George sees that all the books of mankind have crumbled to dust and thus all knowledge has been lost.

Kolumba

Kolumba was designed by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Inside, the history of Cologne meets the art of our time. © Kolumba, Köln, Photo Veit Landwehr.

One institution that impressively counteracts the loss of knowledge is Kolumba in Cologne. Like hardly any other institution for art, the museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne houses the traces and artworks of past centuries in a dialogue between art, craft and architecture. The remnants of ancient walls bear witness to Cologne’s founding as a Roman colony. The evolution of Christianity in Europe during the Middle Ages is evidenced by four churches built atop Roman foundations between 400 A.D. and the 14th century. Kolumba’s visitors can experience the formerly close connection between religion, education and society, as well as the museum’s openness toward contemporary art and themes of the 20th century and the present. Kolumba is especially important for applied arts and crafts because all genres of art are treated and presented here as peers – and because this museum contributes to ensuring that the works of the past and present do not crumble in the dust of history for us and future generations. Dr. Rüdiger Joppien visited Kolumba for Art Aurea. He takes our readers on an exciting journey through time into meditative spaces where applied, visual and performing arts are presented as peers.

Elena Alvarez Lutz

Author and filmmaker Elena Alvarez Lutz impresses with her documentary about jewelry artist Helen Britton.

In her tireless search for materials and themes, Helen Britton has visited production sites of the jewelry and gemstone industry such as Idar-Oberstein, Neu-Gablonz and Lauscha, the Thuringian town renowned for its glass workshops. For this Australian-born and Munich-based artist, these were journeys to places that have largely outlived their industrial heyday and now live on the myths of their illustrious past. The author and filmmaker Elena Alvarez Lutz accompanied Helen Britton on these journeys through time and made the documentary “Hunter from Elsewhere – A Journey with Helen Britton”. Our article also became a journey for the filmmaker, carrying her back once again to her childhood and her first encounters with art jewelry and contemporary ceramics.

Juliane Schölß

Silversmith with heart and soul, Juliane Schölß from Nuremberg. Photo Ulrike Myrzik.

For the third big story in our summer edition, Julie Metzdorf and Ulrike Myrzik visited the silversmith Juliane Schölß in Nuremberg. Trained as a craftswoman and academic, Juliane Schölß is a silversmith who has embarked on the arduous journey of breathing new life into a venerable craft. In an era that has nearly forgotten cutlery crafted from genuine silver and rarely considers vessels made of silver or other metals to be artworks worthy of collecting, this has become a difficult undertaking. But every silversmith also learns two skills that many contemporaries have either lost or never known: patience and attentiveness. Although both virtues seem to have almost fallen into oblivion in today’s efficiency-driven economy, increasingly many people feel precisely this yearning: to have time in which to be mindful – with one’s body, one’s family, one’s friends, with the world and its wonderful nature.

Arts Crafts World

In this section, Art Aurea regularly invites renowned curators or gallery owners to introduce artists whom they particularly appreciate. The selection for the current edition no. 48, summer 2022, was made by Dr. Monika Fahn (Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein), Franziska Appel (Galerie Schmagold, Kassel), Dr. Sabine Runde (long-time curator at MAK, Frankfurt), Dr. Johannes Wieninger (former head of the Asia Department at MAK, Vienna) and Dr. Eva-Maria Tutsek, (Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich). They selected the following artists:
Christoph Finkel. His turned wooden objects impress in their virtuosity and transparency.
Jochen Holz. Free amorphous, organic-looking forms between art, craft and design.

Jochen Holz

Jochen Holz in his studio in London.

Rud Witt. The textile artist inspires with complex concepts and ephemeral installations.
Kurt Spurey. For him, the theme of chawan represents the fundamental question of form and function.
Ann Wolff. The preoccupation with philosophical and existential questions drives the artist.

Articles in the “Review” section

Memory of Lucy Sarneel. The CODA Museum Apeldoorn preserves the legacy of the jewelry artist.
Coburg Glass Prize 2022. The first prize goes to the Scandinavian artist Aesa Björk.
Jewelry and Image. The GRASSI Museum Leipzig presents approximately 300 works by circa 180 international artists.
Attention: Arts and Crafts! On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Bund der Kunsthandwerker Baden-Württemberg e.V.
Matter Moves Mind. The exhibition of the Culturesphere gallery is about a more sustainable material culture.
Rhineland- Palatinate State Prize 2022. Winners are two ceramists and a jewelry artist.
Gustav Weidanz. Renate Luckner-Bien wrote the monograph on the life and work of the versa- tile sculptor.
documenta fifteen – a collective rice barn. In Kassel, the focus is on shared resources for new sustainability models and cultural practices.

Künstlerkollektiv ruangrupa

The curators of documenta fifteen, the artist collective ruangrupa from Indonesia. Photo Saleh Husein.

Art Aurea edition no. 48, Summer 2022, has 92 pages including its cover and is available in leading galleries and specialty stores for 12 euros (E.U.: 14 euros) and by subscription. To order your copy, please send an email to Sabrina Vial s.vial@pressup.de or go to: https://artaurea.com/subscribe/

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