Musings on Munich Jewellery Week and on Migration

by Anna Butcher (Asimi) @asimijewellery 

"It has taken me a while to digest everything I saw at Munich Jewellery Week.  Nothing could have prepared me for such an intense immersion in the world of contemporary jewellery and the sheer volume of talent and skill on show over the period of a few days.  In such a melting pot of designers, makers, curators and collectors I had to be selective about the venues I chose to visit in order not to be visually overwhelmed. ​

Apart from the massive exhibition hall there were around 50 pop up galleries showing the work of collectives, select groups and individuals, each with their own style and atmosphere, though some artists appeared multiple times.  The work ranges from traditional metalwork through to conceptual, sometimes unwearable, and the lines between jewellery and art become blurred.  It occurred to me that as the world is now awash with jewellery, so contemporary designers and astute collectors or wearers now search for “more”: a background story, a message, unorthodox material combinations, emotional or historical documentation.  In this sense, this week devoted to jewellery is actually challenging the entrenched borders of “craft” versus “art”. 
 
In order to navigate the wealth of work on display, I decided to follow the theme that my own work has explored for a while now, that of migration.  Whereas my pieces are composed of flotsam from migrant shipwrecks here on the Greek coast, here I focus on the jewellery made by the migrants themselves, of which there are many.  Of course I too can classify myself as a migrant, albeit a conscious one with the luxury of choice, having moved from the UK to Greece to live a quieter life closer to nature.  I merely observe the tribulations of forced migrants from a safe place.  On the other hand some of the people I chose to research had been pushed into taking that decision for other reasons.  Whatever these were, starting from scratch in a new country, with a new culture, language, few or no contacts and a non-existent workshop is a monumental challenge.  A couple of the designers I refer to here did just that and have achieved the recognition for their work which we would all aspire to.  Their courage and resilience is awe-inspiring.  And their willingness to talk about their experience is revelatory. 
 
First I would like to address the inspiration behind the unique enamelled jewellery of Esteban Erosky @esteban_erosky, who was represented in multiple venues in Munich and beyond, and is already well-known, though maybe without the motivation behind his work being widely understood.  He is the descendent of forced migrants, and his work talks of the “tornaviaje”, the return to the place of origin, Spain. 
 
His grandfather was expelled from Spain and disappeared.  Consequently his grandmother had to flee with his father and uncle to France, then continue to Italy to escape the Nazis, and from there they migrated to Mexico via Venezuela and Panama.  Despite hearing nothing from the grandfather during this 10 year period, miraculously the family were reunited in Mexico city, and rebuilt their life together. 
 
Esteban’s mother’s origins are less clear, but her great great grandfather had also fled to Mexico from Central or Eastern Europe.  There, he met and courted Esteban’s great great grandmother, “stole” her from her parents at the age of 14, and together they had 8 daughters, 6 of whom died.  They had to flee during the Mexican revolution, and flee again because of the Cristero war.  So his grandmother was also a forced migrant, abandoned by her husband and alone in Mexico city with her 3 daughters.  This is where the migration stories intertwine:  Esteban’s parents met and fell in love, establishing a stable home where they could unite their cultures and traditions, and create their own family.  Their family stories of pain and joy remained firmly rooted in their memories despite being forced to abandon everything so many times.  All of them died in Mexico, never having returned to their country of origin. 
 
Having grown up in Mexico, Esteban chose to make this “tornaviaje” to Spain as a conscious migrant, and through his jewellery he explores the feelings of suffering, joy, tradition, gender conflict and longing of his relatives and also of those migrants who never arrived.  He addresses memory, reality and dreams, new families, lost families.  And he portrays the disappearance of memory due to the erosion of time.  Without this documentation, it is so easy for our history to gradually fade into the void.  With his evocative and colourful enamelled figures he is fighting to keep the memory of his family alive before it disappears forever. 
 
Next was my serendipitous online meeting with Elena Karpilova @karpilova, from Belarus, while she was presenting her “Lost in Migration” livestream during Munich Jewellery Week.  She had been invited by the organisers to participate in person, but due to the expiry of her temporary Portuguese residence permit, she was unable to travel.  I had no idea when I joined the meeting that Elena herself had such an extraordinary story to tell.  She had grown up in a family of musicians and artists, with clear political views and a dedication to always vote for truth and openness.  Her father was Jewish and during WWII his family had to change their original last name (which was Goldfarb — golden paint).  After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, most of their relatives left Belarus and sought a new life elsewhere, effectively disappearing from her life.  Elena was always politically active, and for this reason she had some problems in Belarus.
 
In February 2022 she finally had to leave the country, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  She escaped with her husband by way of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the only countries that were reachable quickly and financially before having to navigate the labyrinth of European documentation.  Her aim was to get to Portugal where she already had colleagues in architectural education.  It took 2 months to get there, but though she was now safe, the support and work contract she had been promised were flaky.  It is extremely difficult to wade through the bureaucracy for a resident’s permit, however much supporting documentation you present, yet without one she could neither leave the country nor further her career.  Yet she was also unable to return to Belarus.  Now is not a good time to go there.  Official numbers show that from just a few political prisoners in 2019 there are now nearly 2,000 in 2025.  She finally managed to get another 3 years in Portugal thanks to her determination and resourcefulness, and happily, it was the jewellery and architectural community in Portugal that have been most welcoming to Elena.  And now she is the one introducing other migrant jewellers to the world, giving importance to the stories behind their creations. 
 
As for her work, you cannot pass it by or ignore it.  It is bright.  Sharp.  Deeply poignant in conjunction with her painful story.  To me it shows her bravery at risking a permanent severance from her roots and all that is familiar.  To survive as an alien in a country where, at first, she seemed to have no place must have been draining and deeply disappointing, but her resilience won through, and now she is a well-respected member of the jewellery community worldwide. I salute this and look forward to what we will see next in her work.

My favourite discovery at the main exhibition hall at Messe in Munich was Huiyu Chiu @touratourartbijoux, a Taiwanese artist based in northern France.  From a very young age, she learned traditional oriental painting from her mother, and following her degree in fine art she continued on to do an MA in metalsmithing.  Her decision to get married and move from Taiwan to France in 2016 was tainted by homesickness but she found by returning to the familiarity of traditional painting and integrating it into her metalwork she could find respite in a place of inner peace and confidence.  The time-consuming and meticulous technique of painting on silk or rice paper with acrylic paint and mineral powder was like a healing meditation for her.  Her jewellery addresses the themes of being and not-being, blooming and wilting, ephemeral and eternal, mortal and immortal through the cycles of nature. 
 
Her Blossom pieces “Life is but a pink dream” parody the life in which we pretend that all is well in our world and hide behind pretty colours and flowers.  Whereas “There’s No Blossom This Year” brings tears to the eyes in its evocation of that stark emptiness we feel when solitude is imposed on us against our will - in this case during the Covid lockdowns.   Personally I love her “Winter blossom” pieces and her delicate orchids the most, but as a whole her work is a beautiful visual journal of a hard emotional journey as an alien adapting to her new environment. 
 
Another artist I would like to mention is Toni Mayner @tonimayner, whose exhibition “More Tales from the Riverside”  I stumbled upon at a tiny gallery, Anne Schmidt Design.  Her minimal and enchanting botanical pieces were started in York, and completed during her springtime residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Centre last year, where each was dedicated to a particular moment in the evolving design process:  “walking, thinking, flowing, healing…”  Her accompanying words resonated so much with how my ideas unfold: 
 
Once upon a time there was
a woman with a head full of worries
How to sort this?
A WALK - she thought.
​Stepping out into her new
environment, she discovered
a river with banks of willow trees
and an abundance of very fine plants. 
With each step she felt
her worries leave her as she
explored the beauty and began
to feel the healing begin…
 
Toni migrated from a major city to a smaller medieval one in the UK after finding it no longer suited her needs, and found this change inspiring and healing.  I thought how lucky those of us are who have that freedom to just choose the place we call home, take a walk, unravel our problems outside in nature, and let the healing begin.  How do artists who are fleeing from whatever conflict they face find that still, calm space to even begin making?  Toni’s pieces came across to me as free from the clutter of pain and are so serene and peaceful, her meditations are almost tangible to me.  
 
Maybe it is just movement itself which is the key for some of us to find inspiration.  And while moving, we are in a way documenting world events.  Speaking for myself I believe that pain and emptiness are the greatest triggers to creating as there is actually a space within needing to be filled.  For others maybe it is a source of comfort to alleviate homesickness, the feeling of being an outsider or even just a tool to communicate their experiences in a visual way.  In any case, all these designers provoked thought, empathy and a desire to learn more about them as people which to me is the whole point of art, and now art jewellery." 
 
By Anna Butcher (Asimi) @asimijewellery | http://www.asimi.org.uk/​

Featured Artists
​  @esteban_erosky | @karpilova | @touratourartbijoux| @tonimayner