Orizzonti d’Autore

The works of 20 internationally renowned jewelry artists will be on display. There will also be a retrospective dedicated to Robert Smit. The Dutch artist will be awarded the Premio Archeometra alla Carriera. Many of the artists from eleven countries are expected in Asolo on the weekend of September 14 and 15, 2024.

Brooch by Robert Smit in outstanding painterly quality. These and a further 60 works will be on display at the Museo Civico in Asolo until January 6.

Impressions of the first Biennale Orizzonti d’Autore | Between Vision & Matter in 2022 in the Pinacoteca of the Civic Museum of Asolo, Italy.

The first retrospective in the Sala della Ragione in Asolo was dedicated to Giampaolo Babetto. He received the Archeometra Award for his life’s work as a jewelry artist. The exhibition showed more than 120 works by the Italian master from the late 1960s to 2022.

The exhibition was conceived by curator and gallery owner Thereza Pedrosa and organized in collaboration with various institutions such as the AGC Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo and the Museo Civico of Asolo. The aim is to create an international network and cultural exchange between artists, enthusiasts and experts. The group exhibition subtitled Between Body & Soul, will take place in the rooms of the Museo Civico di Asolo.

The Biennale in Asolo was conceived by the curator and gallery owner Thereza Pedrosa. Brooch by Hanna Liljenberg, Sweden.

Philip Sajet is known for his very free, sometimes provocative works. Here is a necklace by the Dutch artist.

“Jewelry as an art form is closely interwoven with the body, changing its presence, highlighting its features, emphasizing its contours, reshaping its form, concealing its features or redefining its appearance. The exhibition analyzes the relationship between jewelry and the body and shows how these artistic interpretations lend the works themselves a special meaning,” the organizers say.

The harmony of color and filigree lightness conceal sophisticated, masterful craftsmanship. Brooch by Mirjam Hiller, Germany.

Each of the 20 invited artists has explored the theme Between Body and Soul in unique and surprising ways, exploring the deep connections between physicality and spirituality in their own creations. “Through fascinating materials and poetic narratives, but also through surprising illusions and unexpected volumes, each work in the exhibition reveals itself as an instrument of the body that supports it. An instrument created specifically to communicate, to give voice to our soul and to give shape to our dreams.”

Austria is represented at the Asolo Biennale by works by Fritz Maierhofer. Here is one of his current brooches.

The second Orizzonti d’Autore invites us on a journey through the complex connections between body and soul, which are harmonious yet contradictory, visible yet intangible, real yet illusory. From the intimate personal stories that Gerd Rothmann captures in his jewelry to the universe enclosed in the brooches of Fritz Maierhofer, from the surprising shapes that emerge from the unfoldings of Mirjam Hiller to the optical illusions of Jiro Kamata, from the provocative works of Philip Sajet to the seductive creations of Benedict Haener – each creation reveals the complex and often unconscious interaction between the tangible and the invisible, they say. Jewelry thus becomes a medium of communication and the wearer a performer who carries the artist’s message into the world. “Ultimately, it is a tool that generates interaction and is able to create valuable relationships with the people around us.”

On display are the works of Karin Roy Andersson (Sweden), Jeemin Jamie Chung (South Korea), Nicolas Estrada (Colombia), Benedict Haener (Switzerland), Mirjam Hiller (Germany), Jiro Kamata (Japan/Germany), Beppe Kessler (Netherlands), Beate Klockmann (Germany), Ute Kolar (Austria), Hanna Liljenberg (Sweden), Peter Machata (Slovakia), Jana Machatová (Slovakia), Fritz Maierhofer (Austria), Stefano Marchetti (Italy), Liana Pattihis (Cyprus), Piergiuliano Reveane (Italy), Gerd Rothmann (Germany), Philip Sajet (Netherlands) and Graziano Visintin (Italy).

Archeometra Award for a lifetime achievement in author’s jewelry

The “Premio Archeometra alla Carriera per il Gioiello d’Autore” is awarded to an artist who has dedicated his creative energy and artistic research to the art of jewelry and has made a significant contribution to its development and enrichment. The prize was made possible thanks to the support of Archeometra, an IT company from the Veneto region, and the municipality of Asolo. The prize will be presented to Robert Smit on September 14, 2024, 3 p.m., in the Asolo Council Chamber as part of the opening of Orizzonti d’Autore. A retrospective of more than 60 of his works, including drawings, will be held at the Museo Civico di Asolo until January 6, 2025.

Asolo, city of a hundred horizons

Asolo is one of the most beautiful places in Italy and has been loved by travelers and intellectuals from all over the world for centuries. Its name is associated above all with three women: Queen Caterina Cornaro of Cyprus (1454–1510), the theater goddess Eleonora Duse (1858–1924) and the writer Freya Stark (1893–1993), who chose Asolo as her adopted home. The poet Giosuè Carducci called it the “city of a hundred horizons” due to its extraordinary location, as it offers incomparable views in every direction. The castle of Caterina Cornaro dominates the historic center of Asolo and is the venue for events and shows, while the cathedral houses valuable works by Lorenzo Lotto and Jacopo Da Ponte. The town museum of Asolo is home of the famous marble statue Paride by Antonio Canova.

The gallery owner and curator Thereza Pedrosa

The curator of the Orizzonti d’Autore biennial was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1985 and moved to Italy with her family in 1990. Thereza Pedrosa graduated from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice with a degree in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management. In 2009, she worked as an assistant at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, cataloging all the works. Between 2011 and 2012 she worked as scientific coordinator for some exhibitions at the Lucca Center of Contemporary Art. Since 2011 she has been working as an independent curator, designing exhibitions, catalogs and projects for artists and galleries in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In 2019, together with her partner Elinor Garnero, she founded Thereza Pedrosa Gallery for contemporary art with a focus on jewelry.