Michal Kosior talks to Wilhelm Tasso Mattar, a jewellery designer and a jury member of this year’s Elektronos about the competition and amber.
This year you have been a member of the Elektronos jury. Can you describe your working on the winners’ selection of this year’s competition?
We worked in a very good harmony and quite effectively. From the very beginning we were able to focus on some very interesting items. First we selected the works which were not interesting enough or did not suit the subject, did not consist of amber etc. and then we chose 25 works which should be presented. Out of these works we democratically selected the winning ones. When 6 years ago I was the Elektronos juryman for the first time, marking out the works and working out the verdict took us much more time.
In 2000 you took part in the competition as a participant and you were given the Amber Award. What does the participation in the jury look like?
I am quite experienced as a juryman of various competitions. One thing has definitely changed since that time, that is an artistic level which has decidedly increased. The works of the artists from Poland are very developed in an aesthetic and artistic way and interesting at the same time. I do believe that there is the future both for work with amber and amber design. I do not know what is the current situation of academic education of jewellery designers in Poland but studying art helps a lot in broadening horizons. I liked very much the fact that among the works qualified for presentation there are 5 from Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts and these are the debutants’ works. It is a good direction!
How do you estimate a development of the competition throughout the years, does it have a good direction?
Elektronos has developed in a very good direction. I think that it also has a positive influence on the Amberif fair. Thanks to that people see new concepts, ways of thinking about a design etc. And it helps to change boring ideas from the previous years, to maintain the image of amber, but also to start thinking about it in a different way, in different categories. Exactly thanks to such competitions the image of amber as “beads for a grandmother” slowly, step by step is fading away. If I can compare this competition to last year’s one in Kalinigrad (International Competition for Artistic Works in Amber Alatyr – a note of MK), Elektronos is on a much higher level. But even if you leaf through the catalogue of that exhibition you can see that the best works are from Poland! And this is because Polish artists take part in Elektronos – it helps.
I have seen a lot of your works in which you use amber. Is it possible to say that it is one of your favourite materials?
I like working with organic materials very much. I had started with bone and mother-of-pearl. The reason why I got interested in amber was Elektronos indeed, 10 years ago. But then it was possible to get only not too attractive lumps. Today it has changed a lot…
In Europe amber is not so well known in conceptual jewellery, different from ordinary design and beads… Judging by the number of works from abroad, Elektronos is also not too well known in Europe.
No! It has changed a lot in the last few years. I think that one of the reasons why has amber started to be perceived differently is Elektronos indeed. Many of my artists colleagues know this competition quite well. It has only begun a dozen or so years ago and in my opinion such time is needed to create its international prestige. Each competition in order to get noticed has to be repeated many times. It can be seen that the designs reach higher level with each passing year. One of the three awarded people is from Italy (Fabrizio Tridenti, the silver award – a note of MK). I am glad because I promoted this work. This work was in my opinion the most free in artistic expression and I liked it best. And what if only a dozen or so works were from abroad? Well, the Polish ones were exceptionally good!
So what can be the reason that each year only so many works come from abroad?
This competition could do with some more marketing for sure but it is not the most important thing. Personal contacts of Ewa Rachon or Slawek Fijalkowski, who visit various fairs and exhibitions, contribute to popularize Elektronos a lot. I also notice my colleagues who seeing my work with amber also start getting interested in this material, and there are more of them than ten years ago. But the competition has definitely got a potential to have more international character.
Ten years ago I was given an amber award in this competition – it consisted of two kilos of amber. Five larger lumps and a lot of smaller ones. These stones were not as big as I had expected but on the other hand I was also glad. To calm down I made such awful ears out of these five bigger lumps… Each year in my workshop I have classes with students and amateurs. I always offer them a small lump of amber – it still comes from this award from ten years before. And that is how many of them start their adventure with amber with which they have not had a contact before.
You work with amber but it is not still the award from many years before?! Is buying amber in Europe still a big problem?
In the West buying amber constitutes a very big problem and as a matter of fact it is quite impossible to buy a raw one. The whole amber is cut, polished or already set in jewellery. I think that one way of promoting amber and the competition would be annual giving e.g. one kilo of raw lumps of amber by the Amber Association to the schools of jewellery design or one of the schools in Pforzheim or the Ecola Massana in Barcelona or the Royal College of Art. Work with such unprocessed lump is something totally different from working with a lump “destroyed” by cutting its surface and polishing it. Each artistic school prepares a semester’s exhibition being a perfect moment for such visiting, bringing a certain amount of amber and encouraging to work with this material e.g. through taking part in the competition.
When I order some lumps from the amber people from Gdansk, they always send me the polished ones and then I have to use pumiceous powder to remove this shine and show a different surface. A polished surface is an old way of seeing the amber. Local amber lapidaries cut it but they totally lack sculpting perception of this stone, coming inside it. When I give my students a raw lump of amber, much more opportunities are opened for them, they can use their creativity. But if this lump is polished or it is a cabochon, it can be treated only as a typical jeweller’s stone. I guess that is why uncut diamonds are so fashionable now.
How would you summarize what is happening to amber now?
I do not know what is the current aim of Polish amber people – to sell tones or better quality of amber. Such problem now faces the Platinum Guild International. But this is a fundamental question and it is worth to think about it.
The photos of the artist’s works come from his web site
www.mattar.de: the work awarded with the amber award in the Amberif Design Award (Elektronos) in 2000 and a necklace made of the lumps of amber in the shape of ears. A photo of the author by Michal Kosior.
