Legnica SILVER Festival 2025 Wow Effect!
2025-04-10
Legnica SILVER Festival 2025 Wow Effect!
The Legnica SILVER Festival is coming up. This year's edition will consist of ten jewellery exhibitions, located in ten prestigious presentation venues, where we will see over a thousand objects by almost four hundred artists from 45 countries, including China, Great Britain, Germany, Iran, Argentina, Belgium, Spain, South Korea and the USA.
The Opening Weekend of the Legnica SILVER Festival - one of the most important events dedicated to contemporary jewellery in Europe - will take place on 9-10 May. It is traditionally a rich programme of events: vernissages, concerts, workshops, performances, a seminar and - the most emotional - the awards gala of the 33rd International Jewellery Art Competition. This year's edition focuses on the theme of "WOW Effect!" - an invitation to discover jewellery that surprises, moves and becomes a brilliant voice in the conversation about the contemporary world.
Almost three hundred artists from almost every corner of the world submitted their works to the competition. The post-competition exhibition included objects by 44 artists from 22 countries. We will see a wide range of original jewellery, presenting innovative approaches, experiments with material and form, and reflections on contemporary times enclosed in small but surprising forms. Works that did not qualify can traditionally be viewed at a separate exhibition "Holownia", presented in the lobby of the Modrzejewska Theatre, also in the Legnica Market Square.
The pool of prizes awarded in the 33rd MKSZ Efekt WOW is approximately PLN 120,000. In addition to cash prizes, 5 kg of silver donated by KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., statuettes - including the iconic "Silver Spur" designed by Jacek Byczewski, and amber nuggets (0.5 kg of amber donated by the International Amber Association as part of the main competition) will be awarded.
As every year, we will see excellent individual exhibitions in Legnica. The series "Profiles of Creators" will feature experimental works by Christina Karababa - a Greek designer and researcher who successfully combines design, science and technology. In turn, the exhibition by Jarosław Kolc, a long-time teacher at the Jewellery Institute of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, will take us to the world of stones and minerals. Jiakun Zhang - a young artist from China, who took up the subject of memory and recollections - will also boast a solo exhibition. Her exhibition is a realization of the Art Gallery Award, awarded in Bucharest during the Romanian Jewellery Week in 2024.
The organizers do not forget about debutants and young creators who enter the mature world of art with a fresh perspective and courage - their works will be seen, among others, in the show of the "Silver Schools" series. The Department of Precious Stones Idar-Oberstein of the University of Applied Sciences in Trier (Germany) has prepared an exhibition called "ROCKstars - live in Legnica!". A separate presentation will be made by a group of graduates of this university, operating under the banner of AHA Collaboration. The group of debutants is crowned by Justyna Anioł, a student of the Łódź Academy of Fine Arts, awarded by the Art Gallery in the Strzemiński PROJEKT Competition, organized by the university for many years.
Legnica will also present the post-competition show Tincal lab Challenge "Jewelry and Freedom", prepared by the Portuguese studio of Ana Piny. This is an international exhibition telling the story of freedom in a personal, social and political context - through the prism of jewelry.
The Qubus Hotel will welcome festival guests with a presentation of jewelry from the Art Gallery collection entitled "Case WOW!". Once again in Legnica we will also see an exhibition of students of the Department of Art Mediation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. The program ends with traditional poster and photography shows, referring to the competition slogan "WOW Effect!".
For almost fifty years, the Legnica SILVER Festival has been a space for a lively dialogue between art, design and the audience. In a small city located outside the large academic centers, it successfully and passionately promotes and documents the achievements of Polish and international artists in the field of artistic jewelry - surprising in form, message and emotions that it arouses. It is worth visiting and seeing it "live"! The event is held under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the President of the City of Legnica, and the sponsor of the festival is KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. Admission to all exhibitions and events is free.
