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Jewellery

In 1978, Manuel Costa Cabral invites Tereza Seabra (recently arrived from Hamburg, after having been a pupil and assistant to Thomas Gentille in New York) to organize what would become the first training program in Jewellery integrated into an art school context in Portugal. The jewellery department opens immediately, headed by Tereza Seabra until 2004. The logistics and general orientation are devised in strict collaboration with Alexandra Serpa Pimentel (also recently arrived from London, where she studied at the Central School of Art & Design). The program is centered initially around a very demanding technical core, associated with metal and allowing for great creative freedom. But it remains strongly tied to the formal aspects of the jewel. With a fast increase of the numbers of attending students, the department integrates new disciplines (Drawing, Art History, History of Jewellery, in parallel with conferences given by guest lecturers) and invites international artists/jewellers to orient workshops. Thomas Gentille will be among the first guests, while at the same time exhibiting his work at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.  This presence of foreign teachers will become a current and lasting practice in the department: Ar.Co will welcome Ted Noten (Holland), Paolo Marcolongo (Italy), Christoph Zellweger (UK), Ruudt Peters (Holland), Katharina Menziger (Switzerland), Fausto Maria Franchi (Italy), Elisabeth Callinicos (UK), Kadri Maelk (Estonia), Monika Brugger (Germany), Noam Ben-Jacov (Holland) and Deganit Stern-Schoken (Israel), among many others. At the same time, the department opens its doors to artists and to other areas in the school (Painting, Sculpture, Drawing, the Graphic Arts and later Ceramics). The sharing of experiences inherent to such meetings will promote a re-structuring of the department that will now emphasize analysis of the work and the personal dimension of learning, while downplaying the importance of the jewel as a final product (now gradually stripped of its ornamental and decorative aspects while becoming increasingly experimental and conceptual). Little by little, the New Jewellery affirms itself and catches the attention of state institutions and museum directors, leading to the first invitations for exhibitions. Leonor d’Orey, curator of the Goldsmithing and Jewellery collection at the Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon will set up in 1985 the first exhibition of Ar.Co’s teachers and students (“Nova Ourivesaria no Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga”). At the same time Madalena Braz Teixeira, director of the Museu Nacional do Traje, will promote sucessive shows (the cycles “Anos 80” e “Jóia do Mês”). New materials and technologies promote research and experimentation: “All materials are precious if we can reveal their soul. Never use a material when a different one can be used, because only one of them will work”. These words by Thomas Gentille resound in the exhibition “Language of New Materials” that takes place from July to September 1988 at the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in Lisbon. The end of the 1980’s also sees the first contacts of Portuguese Contemporary jewellery and the international scene, thanks to Marie José van de Hout, Dutch gallerist and collector (Marzee Gallery).  In 1986, Cristina Filipe, Manuel Júlio, Filomeno Pereira de Sousa, Pedro Cruz and Marilia Maria Mira are selected to participate in the exhibition “European Crafts Today”, in Tokyo and Osaka (the Portuguese selection being shown afterwards in “Tokyo-Osaka-Lisboa”). Ex-students (Marília Mira e Pedro Cruz) will participate in 1988 in the prestigious annual event Schmuck (at the time called Schmuckzeen),  staged in Munich since 1959. In the parallel event Jugend Gestaltet (later known as Tallent) Cristina Filipe wins in 1989 the honorary prize. In the same year, Maria Jose van de Hout produces in Nijmegen, Holland, the ambitious exhibition “Kammen - An Art Collection of Combs”, including jewellers connected to Ar.Co. In the meantime, there is a widening of the exchange initiatives and protocols with foreign academies (Gerrit Rietvelt Academie in Amsterdam, Royal College of Art in London and Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn). From 1989 onwards the Jewellery Course will include a new proposal – intensive training – that creates a project unit whose class hours are added to the already existing training in technique. The metamorphosis of the Contemporary Jewellery scene is quite visible in two key events: the exhibitions “This is a Jewel / Isto é uma Jóia” and “Ponto de Encontro/Meeting Point(s) – 25 Anos de Intervenções no Departamento de Joalharia do Ar.Co”. From 1998 onwards Marzee Gallery integrates students in their final year at Ar.Co’s Jewellery departament in its annual exhibition – “International Graduation Show”. At the turn of the century several new resources emerge that help implement and divulge Contemporary Jewellery: grants, jewellery master’s degrees, international meetings and symposia, exhibitions at home and abroad, galleries (the pioneering Artefacto 3, founded in 1984 and that becomes the Galeria Tereza Seabra - Jóias de Autor in 1998; Galeria Reverso, founded that same year by Paula Crespo and Ana Isabel Rodrigues), new schools, studios and associations (PIN, the Portuguese Association of Contemporary Jewellery is born in 2004 out of the efforts of Cristina Filipe, Marília Maria Mira and Paula Paour). The department organizes field trips abroad to visit the major centres of contemporary jewellery, as well as some of the schools with which it promotes exchange programs: London and Sheffield (1998), Munich and Pforzeim (2000), Amstersdam and Antwerp (2006) and Valenza (2012). Students and teachers are invited to international meetings where they participate in exhibitions, give talks and orient (and/or participate in) workshops: “Jewellery and Xamanism” (1990, Gerrit Rietveld Academie; Cristina Filipe and Marta Eliseu), “L’ornament est-il toujours un crime?” (2002, Haute École d’Arts Appliqués, Geneva; Tereza Seabra, Cristina Filipe, Inês Nunes and Diana Silva), “Flags” (2007, Konstfack, Stockholm; Cristina Filipe, Artur Madeira, Ana Margarida Carvalho and Sónia Graça), “Siamo Qui” (2007, Florence; Cristina Filipe, Leonor Hipólito, Sónia Graça, Typhaine Le Monnier and Teresa Chang), “Sieraad - Jewellery International Art Fair” (2008, Amsterdam; Alexandra Rodrigues, Cristina Filipe, Joana Mota Capitão, Maria Ana Ricon Peres, Mariana Gonçalves, Sofia Canas da Mota, Typhaine Le Monnier and Vânia Santos). More recently, students who have just finished Ar.Co are invited to participate in the JOYA event in Barcelona (David Pontes, Natalia Olarte and Typhaine Le Monnier in 2012; Laura Rose, Gabriela Coelho and Alice Gelin in 2013), in the 2012 exhibition “Periferia-Escuelas de Joyería del Sur” and in the “Melting Point” event in Valencia (Carlos Silva, Gabriela Coelho, Joana Taurino, Laura Rose, Maria Emília Martinho  and Typhaine Le Monnier). The department also develops numerous partnerships and colaboration with national instititutions resulting in several thematic projects numerous thematic projects: the “Áqua” project in 1986 (with the Centro Hospitalar and City Council of Caldas da Rainha), “Santarém Capital do Gótico” in 1987 (Centro Regional de Santarém), the “Projecto Álvaro de Campos” in 1988 (Galeria de Arte da Casa-Museu Álvaro de Campos, in Tavira, with support from the Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, the Algarve Tourism Region and the City Council of Tavira) and the “Os Dias de Tavira” in 2001. More recently,  collaborations have taken place between Ar.Co, the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (“Morte  do Objecto: De um Artefacto Funerário à Joalharia Contemporânea”, 2010) and the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (“Jóias a partir das colecções”, 2013). Cristina Filipe ceases her functions as head of department in 2015 and Catarina Silva will be the new head of Jewellery from that date onwards. 

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  Jewellery class at Ar.Co, Lisbon, 1978.

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  Tereza Seabra and Gudrun Maas (invited teacher) at the Intensive Course in Jewellery. Ar.Co, September, 1981.

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  Workshop with Ruudt Peters, Ar.Co, Lisbon, 1995.

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  Exhibition “Santarém Capital do Gótico”. Forum - Centro Cultural Regional de Santarém, 1987.

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  Jewellery department project "10 Rings for 10 Fingers", 1998. Inês Nunes.

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  Workshop with Christoph Zellweger, Ar.Co ,Lisbon, 1998.

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  Pieces by Ana Henriques, 2005. Silver and glass.

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  Sónia Graça. Bracelet. 2006.

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  Pieces by Miriam Castro, 2006.

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  Ar.Co's field trip, guided by Marjan Unger, to the Sandberg Institute, Gerrit Rietveld Akademie, Amsterdam, 2007.

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  Typhaine Le Monnier. Wedding rings. 2007.

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  Jewellery - Ar.Co's school tour to the Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, 2007.

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  Piece by Hugo Madureira, 2008, mixed media.

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  Samples of badges by Ar.Co for the Jewellery Symposium "Siamo Qui", Florence, 2008.

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  Dani Soter. "Body piece", produced for Christoph Zellweger's workshop, Ar.Co, Lisbon, 2009.

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  Ar.Co Project (Jewellery) with the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Lisbon, 2009.

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  Beatriz Mousinho. Bracelet. 2010.

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  Hanna Lundborg. Necklace, 2010. Exchange student Ar.Co - Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm.

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  Alexandra Rodrigues. Brooch. 2010.

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  David Pontes. "Spinning Tops". Silver, bronze, copper, brass and sainless steel. 2011.

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  Susana Medeiros. Necklace. paper. 2012.

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  Debora Palma. Necklace. Fragments of painted wall. 2013.

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  Exhibition "Intersecções" - presentation of results from project Ar.Co / Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon, 2013.

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  Workshop with Deganit Stern Schocken, Ar.Co, Lisbon, 2013.

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  Catarina João. Pendant. 2014.

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  Rita Marques. Self-portrait, department project. 2014.

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  Manuela de Sousa, invited artist/jeweller as part of the theoretical courses of the Jewellery department, 2015.

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  Manuel Júlio, invited artist/jeweller as part of the theoretical courses of the Jewellery department, 2015.