Thomas Färber

Spring is coming. And GemGèneve is preparing for the event: the sixth edition of the fair dedicated to gems, fine vintage jewelery and new design (May 11-14, over 170 exhibitors expected) presents some significant innovations. The first concerns a new location within the Palexpo in Geneva: after pavilions 7 and 6 of the previous five editions, this time GemGèneve will move to Pavilion 1, on 13,000 square meters of exhibition space. The organizers have also decided to redesign the exhibition space, the visitor routes and the main entrance to make the most of the available space and offer exhibitors the best visibility: they will be arranged around four coffee station areas, two main aisles and a lounge which will host exhibition spaces, projects, musical and literary after-work events.

Furthermore, on the wave of growing green sensitivity, the Parisian design agency Autre Idée, which has been collaborating with the organizers since 2021, has opted for an installation based on the theme of plants and organic life for the spring edition. Other innovations concern the emerging talents and new designers area, curated by Nadège Totah. In this area, the fine jewelry of the Belgian designer Fred Fa will debut, refined and a little mysterious, who makes all his sketches, technical drawings and gouache jewelry designs by hand. In the same area there will be Serendipity Jewelry, the result of one of the emerging talents of the November 2022 edition, but this time in the New Designers category, as well as the talented Austy Lee Art Jewelery from Hong Kong: she creates bold, psychedelic, sculptural and complex pieces . The Designer Vivarium will always be curated by the jewelry history Vivienne Becker.

We attach as much importance to gemstones and jewelery creation and design as promoting true solidarity, uniting the international community of gemstone and antique jewelery dealers, designers and all jewelery enthusiasts.
Thomas Faerber, co-founder of GemGenève

Furthermore, the next edition of GemGenène will not miss Ukrainian jewelers, an initiative launched by Olga Oleksenko in May 2022 in response to the war in Ukraine and supported by the co-founders of GemGenève. The project is called Strong and Precious-Ukrainian Jewelers, and brings together creations by Ukrainian designers, also as a gesture of support for the situation in the country.

Among the collateral initiatives, it is worth mentioning an off-site exhibition at the event with exceptional automatons and other musical and artistic objects organized by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire of Geneva. Also off site, the Genevan jeweler Herbert Horovitz, who also manages the Gem Collectors Bookshop, opens the space of the Villa for an event dedicated to the lost arts: crafts that are becoming rare or endangered, such as semi-precious stone mosaicists, peelers and threaders of pearls, polishers, engravers, enamellers, stone setters, stonemasons, lapidarists, sheathers, small hardware gilders, electroformers and gold beaters. The Singapore Gem Museum returns to GemGenève with a fun and interactive learning space.

Finally, the collaboration with various art schools, jewelery and other educational institutions related to jewelery is back, with four prizes that will be awarded to the most creative young people: the Visitors’ Choice Prize for the Cfc project, the Asmebi prize for the Cfc project, the Visitors Choice award for the Head x Grand Théâtre de Genève x GemGenève project and the Eric Horovitz Foundation Award for the Cfc project.

From 3 to 6 November GemGèneve is back, an event at the Palaexpo in the Swiss city centered on gems, vintage jewelery and novelties from jewelery designers. As usual, the two founders and organizers of GemGèneve, Ronny Totah and Thomas Faerber, answer some questions about the event.

Ronny Totah, organizer of GemGenève and co-founder of the event

Question. Once again, GemGenève has numerous surprises and discoveries in store for visitors and exhibitors. The show provides a comprehensive overview of jewellery, precious, rare and unique stones, pearls; antique jewellery, and historic and modern creations. What’s your secret?

Ronny Totah. I would like to answer that question by pointing out that there is no secret. We have always explained what we are and what our essence is. And the cultural programme flows from that. We’re a small team but we give it our all. We have Mathieu Dekeukelaire (director di GemGenève) in the team and he’s highly committed to producing this cultural programme. He is constantly seeking out new opportunities and novelties to present during the show and makes it a point of honour to create a first-class cultural programme for each new edition. On the other hand, when people realise that GemGenève is not just a trade show but an event in itself, they want to be associated with it. Some projects come directly to us, as was the case with the Igor Carl Fabergé Foundation. And this is actually the reward, or a consequence of our initial aim to set up and event which emphasises culture, youth, training, knowledge transfer and above all, on our passion for the jewellery professions. GemGenève, is a trade show AND an event that has been created from the heart.

Question. You recently announced «There are no future plans to put on two editions of GemGenève each year.» This November edition was put on at the express request of exhibitors. Why have you always given in to your exhibitors’ demands up to now? Don’t you know how to say no?

Ronny Totah. Don’t I know how to say no? Perhaps I’ll start with that question. I might perhaps find it difficult to say no in many areas, but it’s not that I don’t know how to say no. Since Thomas and I are also exhibitors, when exhibitors come to us with specific requests, we are able to decide whether they make sense or not. Regarding the November edition, I had confirmation that buyers themselves (and not just exhibitors) needed an event like ours at the end of year, and in Europe. That’s one of the reasons why we agreed to their request. And I am pretty sure that we´ve made the right decision! Now, the next question: how often should we hold GemGenève in the future? I can’t answer that. Thomas and I are constantly listening to the market. And we will talk with everyone who participates in the success of a show: buyers, exhibitors, ourselves and our team.

Question. Why do you think people are passionate about GemGenève? Please tell us about your business model.

Ronny Totah. GemGenève’s business model is definitely the same as the business model of a wedding planner. The spouses are the exhibitors and buyers (there are clearly two components like there are in a wedding), and we need to meet the needs of this buyer-exhibitor couple. And that is very important because operating like that eliminates all risk. A conventional organiser will need to take a risk: they place a bet, hoping that in the month of April, for instance, an entire profession with which he is not familiar – because show organisers are not familiar with the profession they exhibit – will need a show in Italy or Germany, or somewhere else. He’s therefore going to start organising this exhibition, estimating the number of people who will attend and making reservations. But this is a risk and the organiser must account for a margin to mitigate any costly mistakes being made. With GemGenève, it’s totally different. We don’t need to take that risk because we respond to a demand that’s real and already there. By not taking that risk, we don’t have the financial need to accumulate money in case we make a bad decision or launch an event that won’t meet our expectations. With us, it’s the complete opposite: our response must meet the expectations of exhibitors and buyers. And that’s why we supplement the commercial side of GemGenève with a whole range of (essentially) cultural and educational events. We think that the passion for a show like GemGenève stems essentially from our business model which, as yet, has no equivalent.

Thomas Faerber, co-founder of GemGenève

Question. With the current economic and political situation, how is the gem and jewellery market doing? Are you seeing a slowdown in the economy or an increase in prices for certain materials?

Thomas Faerber. The demand for gemstones and the search for rare, valuable pieces remains very high. Finding a new source of these exquisite gemstones is sometimes a challenge. We are also seeing a sharp rise in prices for small diamonds up to 0.05 carats. One reason for this is the Western sanctions imposed on the mining giant Alrosa, a specialist in small diamonds.

Question. You present some beautiful micromosaic pieces in this edition. What is your favourite piece and why?

Thomas Faerber. Personally, I really like this pendant made of acetate and antique micro-mosaic by Carlotte Angloz X Flab. It is a circular pendant set with an 18th century (dated from around 1790) micro-mosaic of a butterfly in an orange acetate and 18k rose gold frame, suspended from a 18k rose gold chain. The frame was designed by Charlotte Angloz for FLAB, marked FF for Faerber and numbered 33390 (pendant approx. 5.8 x 5.8 cm, chain length approx. 41 cm). My daughter Ida and I were impressed by the high standard of Charlotte Angloz’ work. In order to develop the next generation of young talent, we supported this talented student from the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD) to develop and launch her first capsule collection. These unique creations were presented for the first time at GemGenve 2021, on the Faerber-Collection stand.

Question. What message would you like to send to the visitors of GemGenève?

Thomas Faerber. First of all, as we have chosen high-level exhibitors, whatever the size of their company or their stand, I hope that our professional buyers and collectors will again find the treasures they are looking for before the end of the year.  On the other hand, I hope that visitors to GemGenève will be inspired by the discoveries they make on site and that they will once again find themselves amazed by the creativity of the young designers’ exhibited works. I would like to stress that this edition promises to be particularly rich in novelties with a high quality cultural programme. For my part, I am looking forward to discovering the exhibition on Micromosaics and the Fabulous Carl Fabergé exhibition of the Igor Carl Fabergé Foundation as well as the stand of the Gem Museum of Singapore. Tay Kunming, the founder of the museum, will present a collection of gemstones and minerals to the public. This will be accompanied by explanations of the different stages of their transformation and will allow the general public to better understand our industry. Finally, I wish all the exhibitors a good and successful GemGenève.