Don’t Forget to Die

Each year since 2009, Katja Schlegel has invited artists to exhibit at schlegelschmuck during Munich’s Craft Fair. For the 10th anniversary, she’s organizing the exhibition around the theme “Don’t Forget to Die” together with Alexandra Bahlmann, Dorothea Förster, Svenja John and Christina Langes. Each of these jewelry-making friends invited another participant: Prof. Karen Pontoppidan, Prof. Jantje Fleischhut, Sabine Klarner, Vera Siemund and Petra Zimmermann. The participants from Munich are Kunstkammer Georg Laue and Maria & Neda Ploskow with video art. Jewelry enthusiasts have to wait now a year for this interesting exhibition. The title of the exhibition triggers ambiguous feelings about the current corona crisis.

Alexandra Bahlmann, earrings Infinity, 2019. Silver oxidized, pink opal, green kianite.

Dorothea Förster, collage Abschied [farewell], 2019. Paper, plastic, textile, metal, color, lipstick. Photo Eva Jünger.

Vera Siemund, necklace and pendant, 2015. enameled copper, silver. Pendant 8 x 10 x 3 cm.

Katja Schlegel, brooch, answers, 2019. Silver, acrylic glass, foil, steel.

The theme of the exhibited artworks is to celebrate the here and now rather than postponing life until death knocks at the door. Katja Schlegel asked acquaintances to choose a phrase for the show’s title and then immortalized each phrase in a piece of jewelry. Svenja John created a striking bracelet referencing the “Day of the Dead” (“Día de Muertos”), which friends celebrate by getting together to enjoy flowers, favorite foods, music, dance and fireworks. Death is a grave and weighty theme for Alexandra Bahlmann, who nonetheless believes that “jewelry should always have a certain lightness.” Petra Zimmermann designed a series of poison rings: each is topped by a little container that can be filled as required. Whether it’s really full of poison or another substance remains a secret known only to the wearer. Jantje Fleischhut is fascinated by the endlessness of the universe and creates jewelry with cosmic allusions. Vera Siemund combines vessels in Classicist forms with rabbits to create “a ‘light-footed’ commentary on Classicistic pathos and the dreary aura of transience of the funeral urn, apart from everything else a rabbit represents.” For Christina Langes, no artform is as close to life and death as music. She juxtaposes the gravity of the subject with formal lightness. Sabine Klarner reminds us that the bee was also a memento mori in the ancient world: “… so be nice and industrious until you kick the proverbial bucket….”