Artifacts unearthed at archeological excavations prove that the Lindelbach district near Würzburg was already inhabited in the New Stone Age. The so-called “Neolithic revolution” around 7,000 years ago marked the beginning of farming, which is documented by the Linear Pottery culture. Evidence of early craftsmanship from the Bronze and Iron Ages has also been found near the village of Lindelbach, which was incorporated into the Franconian wine-growing town of Randersacker in 1975.
From July 5 to 7, 2024, Lindelbach will once again host an exhibition of applied art. The show’s atmospheric setting is provided by a former farmhouse owned by Eva Maisch and her husband Walter Jäckl in the village’s center. At the first summer festival in 2018, well-established artists impressed visitors with contemporary jewelry and art objects crafted from a wide variety of materials. The “Inspiration and Curiosity” exhibit has never been so international. Kim Buck, known worldwide for innovative jewelry, will arrive from Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen together with his partner, the Chinese jewelry artist Hongxia Wang.

An icon of contemporary jewelry art, the Puffed Up ring in 24-carat gold by Kim Buck. Photo Dorte Krogh.

Looks like it came from a 3D printer, but is made entirely by hand. Hongxia Wang, Ennui ring in 18-carat gold. © Hongxia Wang.
Swiss-born Jonas Noel Niedermann, a master of experimental glass art, also currently lives in Denmark. The Japanese designer Sho Ota has been manufacturing complex furniture objects in the Netherlands since completing his master’s degree at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Othmar Prenner cultivates inventive craftsmanship, design and art in the Vinschgau Valley in South Tyrol, Italy. Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch trained in ceramics in Landshut and returned to his native Thailand with an MFA degree from the University of Kassel. Germany is represented by the internationally renowned jewelry artist and silversmith Peter Bauhuis, who has lived in Munich since studying at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Glass object from the Magnetics series by Jonas Niedermann. Magnetic fields attract colored particles that leave bizzare, colored shapes and structures on the surface of the glass body.
The exhibited objects and pieces of jewelry result from innovative ideas, techniques and material combinations. They express individual feelings, concepts and messages. And they can easily hold their own alongside works of contemporary art, notwithstanding the fact that they also function as jewelry, vessels or stools. Glass works by Jonas Noel Niedermann, metal vessels by Peter Bauhuis and rings by Hongxia Wang can, for all their diversity, be classified as works of informal art that stimulate the imagination associatively and individually. Today more than ever, (applied) art thrives on cultural exchange. Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch’s Kobalt Series was inspired by blue-and-white Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty, although the rough, furrowed surfaces and craquelure created by multiple firings are also design elements of Western ceramic art. This Thai artist shows his sense of humor with his NFTs (Non-Functional Teacups), an allusion to the non-fungible token, i.e. a crypto asset that cannot be exchanged.

Allusion to the cryptocurrency: Non Functional Teecup NFT 02.18 by Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch. © The artist.

Sho Ota combines traditional Japanese craftsmanship with a Western understanding of design. The result is collectible furniture objects.

Mortar and pestle from the Edition Marmor by Othmar Prenner. Utility objects made of fine Lasa marble with a tangible charisma. © Othmar Prenner.

For his vessels with picturesque, cloud-like surfaces, Peter Bauhuis experiments with different alloys and metals. © Peter Bauhuis.
Research is a top priority in all the arts nowadays. Peter Bauhuis, for example, who is also known as “the alchemist” because of his material experiments, recreated tumbaga, a copper-and-gold alloy that the Spanish conquistadors mistook for pure gold. Sho Ota’s sculptural objects explore the identity of wood through their masterful combination of design, craftsmanship and art. Jonas Noel Niedermann’s “Magnetics” series of glass objects are based on his research into magnetic fields, their collision and breakdown. Kim Buck’s intense urge to continually explore new techniques and shapes underlies and motivates his inventive and humorous pieces of jewelry. Othmar Prenner recently received the Bavarian State Prize for a mortar made of finely crystalline Lasa marble: this millennia-old grinding tool has never been so well thought out. The drawings that Hongxia Wang creates “in boredom” are then manually transferred line by line into three-dimensional wax molds. The resulting rings look as though they have come out of a 3D printer. These and other examples prove that it is well worth one’s while to learn the stories behind the objects. And if visitors are so inclined, they can also ponder the commonalities that connect the prehistoric craftspeople of the Neolithic with the present-day exhibitors at Eva Maisch’s farmstead in Lindelbach. Reinhold Ludwig
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Im Hofstall
Wäldleinstraße 1
97236 Lindelbach - Link