GemGenève is also an opportunity for jewelery culture. The second edition (2-5 November) of the Geneva event dedicated to vintage or designer gems and jewellery, now in its seventh edition, coincides with a series of exhibitions, shows and tutorials on the topic. Starting with the exhibition entitled The Pearl Odyssey, with over 40 jewels and exceptional pieces. Maison Chaumet, the Flee Project collective, the Alfardan Collection, a private collector and exhibiting partners, such as Faerber-Collection, Heritage Gems, Horovitz & Totah, Joseph Gad, Nicolas Torroni, Ocean Flame, Swiss Pearls and Ssef have decided to exhibit some of the their most beautiful pieces.
In addition to this great exhibition, there are many cultural meetings. A space dedicated to craftsmanship, created in collaboration with Asmebi (Swiss association of jewelery artisans) and the partner schools of Csp Arts Geneva and the Ecole Technique de la Vallée de Joux will host presentations and demonstrations with an enameller, a chain maker , a sheath maker, an inlayer, a lacemaker, a lapidary, a glass artist or even a specialist in 3D metal printing. The consultancy firm Donna Jewel has dedicated its new creative project, created in collaboration with GemGenève for the November 2023 edition, to the theme of movement. Students are invited to create a kinetic piece of jewelry, a moving piece that expresses the change they want to see and embody in the world.
GemGèneve also includes three workshops. The first is dedicated to 3D Modeling. The second to creative free-form modeling and the third to 3D modeling for jewelry. Practical workshops are the one run by Sabine Gyger on stringing pearls without glue and that of Vaudaux, a Swiss company specialized in the design and production of cases, accessories and leather goods.
In meeting with the theme of jewelry is that of Gislain Aucremanne, curator of the Bulgari heritage, with focus on the snake in jewelry. Gabrielle de Montmorin will interview Jean-Marc Mansvelt, CEO of Chaumet, a brand that in fact has one of the largest collection assets in the world, with 66,000 designs, the oldest of which date back to the beginning of the 19th century, 716 nickel silvers, including 515 tiaras, 60,000 negatives, including 33,000 glass plates and 300,000 photographic prints, but also 117 visit books, 434 invoice books and inventories of Paris, London and New York, to which are added the books on stones, pearls and laboratories without forgetting the 20,000 letters of correspondence from the main executives of the Maison.
Another scheduled meeting concerns the purchase of an ancient jewel, proposed by the Gemmologie & Francophonie Association, with Chloé Picard & Martial Bonnet, for the Gemmologie & Francophonie Association. Then on the program are the conversation on the theme My favorite jewel of the 40s from GemGenève and the meeting on the theme of Feathers and jewels, the enchantment of colour, with Jacques Cuisin, Nelly Saunier, Stéphanie Sivrière, Jean Bernard Forot. Connected to the exhibition is the conversation Pearls of Truth, by Laurent Cartier, pearl expert from the Ssef laboratory, Violaine Bigot, head of the Chaumet heritage and Kathia Pinckernelle, historical pearl jewel.
The extensive GemGèneve program also includes other meetings, such as a round table on young people and the goldsmith’s art, followed by the award ceremony of the Donna Jewel x GemGenève project, in collaboration with the Galdus School. How artificial intelligence is revolutionizing gemstone analysis. Between limits and opportunities is the theme of another round table with Andrea Machalova, Laurent Cartier, Daniel Nyfeler, Laura Tocmacov. More pearls, but in the context of new creative scenarios in the meeting with Donatella Zappieri, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Milena Lazazzera and Laurent Cartier. The future of jewelry marketing on social media will instead examine the impact of these media. David Brough, Laura Inghirami, Renu Choudhary, Bebe Bakhshi, Katerina Perez will talk about it.
Finally, jewelery and publishing with a series of meetings on the theme of books dedicated to the Chaumet spirit, mineralogy, the Chinese brand Yewn, and Lydia Courteille. And there is even a quiz game about the world of precious stones, Gemmo Pursuit.
