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Gigi Mariani: the voice of metals

Gigi Mariani is a jeweller living in Modena, Italy. This is the city where he was born in 1957.

Gigi Mariani was always fascinated by the infinite potential of metals and the opportunity to transform their original properties and look to expand what can be reached. He uses the old jewellers, almost abandoned, techniques making them his own to give his work a distinctive character. He works with precious metals, combining them with other metals, like iron, copper, and brass. He applies black enamel over the surface of the metal, so that it stays completely covered. This way, the preciousness of the metal disappears, giving place to a dark and rough coat. Using heat, he makes cracks and clots, which result in apparently damaged surfaces, like old relics.

His work is based on spontaneity and instinct. He tries to transfer daily emotions to the jewellery in an impulsive way. This process allows him to develop unique and sculptural works. He tries hard to use the same type of approach he uses in painting, using the metal’s surface as canvas. That instinctive approach is countered by the sharp geometric shape he uses, thus putting everything back into place. Gigi Mariani gives voice to the metals. In brooches and bracelets he explores the expression of the materials with an unbiased poetry, creating dense textures combined with the colour of the metals.

He is, since 2013, Vice President of AGC Italy (Contemporary Jewellery Association). In 2012, together with H. Herb, he was curator of the International Jewellery Competition… vices or lifestyle? In 2011, he attended a granulation workshop with Giovani Corvaja, at Alchimia School in Florence, and he is a member of the Klimt02 site and of the Crafthaus. In 2009, he got involved in AGC and was co-founder of the Artifizio group. He collaborates with the Archeologic Museum of Modena since 2001. Between 2001 and 2002 he attended a seminar on diamond classification at the Chamber of Commerce in Modena. In 1985 he opened his ownd workshop in that city and in 1983 he attended a course at the Goldsmith laboratory.

Gigi Mariani has received several awards, among which the first Joya award in 2014 in Barcelona; the first prize of the Cominelli Foundation in 2013; the Enjoia’t award in 2012 in Barcelona; and in 2011, the first prize ONOFF, Spazio Aperto 150°, granted in Padua.

AS for exhibitions in 2016, we highlight Les Confluences, Catalan Modernism Museum, Barcelona; Selected Stories, Ohmayblue Gallery, in Venice; Past present, Alternatives gallery, Rome; Conversation with a cloud, Putti Galleri, Riga; Jewel: the inspiration in the past, Museum of Human Evolution, in Burgos; After Joya Effect III, in Athens.

Ana Campos was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1953. She is a jeweler and is also dedicated to research in this area. In the field of teaching, she taught design and theories of the art and design of contemporary jewelery. Until 2013, she was director of the arts / jewelery business and coordinator of the post-graduation in jewelery design at ESAD - School of Arts and Design, in Matosinhos, Portugal. It has been dedicated to curating and producing national and international jewelery exhibitions. Graduated in Communication Design at FBAUP. He studied jewelery at Ar.Co, Lisbon and at the Massana School, Barcelona, ​​as a scholarship holder at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He holds a postgraduate degree in Intercultural Relations from Universidade Aberta, Porto, which led to a masters degree in Visual Anthropology, whose dissertation is entitled "Cel i Mar: Ramón Puig, actor in a new jewelery scene". The orientation was by José Ribeiro. She is currently a PhD in philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He finished his PhD in 2014, with the guidance of Gerard Vilar. He developed a thesis entitled: "Contemporary jewelry as art: a philosophical study".

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