Finally!
The Munich City Museum is sparkling again.
It is expected that until September visitors can enjoy jewelery from the Bavarian capital here.
From then and now.
Worth seeing!
What a great idea.
From today's perspective, it's easy to demonize ivory jewelry, says Patrik Graf.
To kill elephants to cut out their tusks - how inhuman!
Right.
This is now forbidden, which is completely clear to us “modern” people.
But have we really made any progress in terms of animal welfare?
To question this, the student at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts turned a real pig's nose into a brooch.
It now hangs in the Munich City Museum next to ivory brooches and pendants like the one from the jeweler Alwin Schreiber from 1912. Today's viewer stands in front of it meekly - and has to touch one's pig's nose.
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Ivory jewelry is frowned upon today.
Patrik Graf made a brooch out of pig to show that we “modern humans” don't deal better with animals.
© Ernst Jank
The “MUC / Jewelry” show will be open to the public from tomorrow.
It is hoped to be able to show them continuously until the end of September.
In fact, it would be a shame if these pieces of jewelry fell victim to a lockdown.
Because here 25 students from Professor Karen Pontoppidan's jewelry and equipment class came up with extremely creative reinterpretations of Munich's jewelry art from yesteryear.
The Bavarian capital played an important role in goldsmithing from the end of the 19th century.
It was particularly characteristic of many of the local artists that they continued to cultivate historical styles and techniques even after the turn of the 20th century, when Art Nouveau flourished.
As always, traditionally conscious of Bavaria.
But with all the traditional love always turned towards the future.
The Art Deco influences are unmistakable in some of the showcases that run lengthways through the large exhibition space.
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The Münchner Kindl in a brooch by Theodor Heiden (1908).
© Munich City Museum
A total of around 100 historical brooches, pendants, rings and necklaces sparkle here.
That is about half of the Münchner Schmuck collection that Beate Dry-von Zezschwitz amassed over decades - and through the purchase of which the museum has filled a crucial gap in its own holdings.
Now the curators Antonia Voit (Münchner Stadtmuseum) and Karen Pontoppidan could have simply put the new beauties in showcases and let them shine for themselves.
That would have looked nice, but the highlight of this show is the combination of the historical with the sometimes radical designs of the young and wild at the academy.
They don't just want to manufacture what they like.
Here, in addition to the artistic, every piece has a socially critical approach.
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It is therefore worthwhile to take a close look at each of these works, which are made with the highest level of craftsmanship.
The 15 brooches by Mariko Kakinaga, for example, make you wonder.
She has put lots of salt, pepper and sugar bags in copper and resin.
Next to it are plaques from bygone times from important events such as the Dresden Hygiene Exhibition in 1911. Badges to remember historical moments.
This contrast makes it dawn on you: It may be insignificant pouches that Kakinaga has processed into jewelry.
They are lying around in cafes all over the world.
But maybe also in the very same café where you once met a great love.
Given such a rendezvous, how important is an expo or biennale?
Individual and universal histories can sometimes differ widely.
Really strong.
Until September 26th in the Munich City Museum; Tue-Sun 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Telephone 089/23 32 23 70.