The students of the Department of Design and Art of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design presented their jewelry as part of an extraordinary performance in the Film Studio of the new campus on December 18, 2019. Instead of the regular end-of-the-semester exhibition, we could participate in an experimental design show.
Written by Noémi Viski
STAGE – six young designers started to work on the pieces based on bold concepts and with an experimental attitude, so the event was much more of an expressive performative practice than a classic jewelry show. It’s true that it would be hard to define what we consider regular in terms of contemporary jewelry design, as the borders are quite blurred: it does not follow strict rules in terms of use of materials and shaping forms and it maneuvers between art and design, between conceptual creations and wearable objects. STAGE gave examples for this exactly.
The experimental aspect was also reflected by the choice of venue. Extreme exhibition situations are not extraneous to the world of contemporary jewelry: the jewelry pieces of Flóra Vági, for example, were presented to the audience as “meals” served on a nostalgia train in 2015, while Réka Lőrincz regularly adds DIY nail painting to her exhibitions. STAGE has joined the line of extraordinary presentations. The designers swapped the “white cube” for a “black box”, the Film Studio of MOME: the professional lighting technology created exciting light-shadow contrasts on the surfaces of the pieces, and owing to sound and projection, mood-setting music and videos brought about the anticipated atmosphere perfectly.
The six designers elaborated different topics, including questions of environment protection, gender issues or matters related to contemporary object culture when preparing the object series. Several designers responded to the formal characteristics of the living creatures of the biosphere. Szilvia Rémiás experimented further with the LED technology of her previous work, her PANDORA jewelry inspired by deep-sea wildlife. On the pieces of her new CYBERLIGHT collection, light is concentrated at the points where the pieces meet the body, it fades away when moving away from the body, and it finally ends in the multitude of radiant spots of light. Playing with light and movement makes the jewelry series truly spectacular and theatrical. When designing VIROLÓGIA (Virology), Fanny Czanik started off from the composition of viruses, while Luca Ujvári-Zsiga invoked the organic structures of nature and the destruction caused by environmental pollution with her BIOMORFÓZIS (Bio-morphosis) series.
The choreographies of models followed the concepts of the collections, this way highlighting the fact that the objects only show their true self on the body and during movement. This particularly dominated the works of Anna Sümegh titled MONDD KI SZÉPEN! (Say it out loud!), which attempted to manifest our internal frustrations in text, objects and the body.
Csenge Diriczi also focused on examining our manifestations towards the outer world: In her series titled SEXTRUM, she prepared collages that can be worn on the body using images and the gender-typical objects of consumer society, which fell down from the models layer by layer, this way symbolizing the stripping of stereotypes. In addition to social issues, matters related to our designed environment were also in focus. Patrícia Harsány invoked the artistic practices based on expropriation with reinventing worn-out found objects as pieces of jewelry in her LOST AND FOUND collection. Her message – the courage to think differently about our object culture – could have been the motto of the entire evening.
STAGE. Department of Design and Art MA I. MOME TWO – Film Studio, December 18, 2019, 17:00
Artists: Fanny Czanik, Csenge Diriczi, Patrícia Harsány, Luca Ujvári-Zsiga, Szilvia Rémiás, Anna Sümegh
Project managers: Krisztián Ádám, András Mohácsi
Visual, sound, technology: Gyula Bodonyi, Zsolt Erdélyi, Ákos Zajzon
Models: Enikő Bákány, Rita Jakusovszky, Fruzsina Kiss, Luca Magyar, Zsuzsanna Marosi, Réka Mucsi, Tiffany Nadler, Noémi Nákity, Lilla Oláh, Panni Petró, Anna Pongrácz, Réka Sarkadi, Zsolt Sógor, Anna Szalma, Málna Székely, Evelyn Takács, Lili Tóth, Virág Borbála Varga
Photos by: Máté Lakos
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