Challenge 2025 Jewelry and Celebration

 

“A alegria é a coisa mais séria da vida!”

“Joy is the most serious thing in life!”

Almada Negreiros, Portuguese multidisciplinary artist

Let’s party! Tincal lab turns 10 in 2025 and it seems like the perfect time to reflect on the power of jewelry when it comes to celebrate special moments.

Jewels are often connected to collective rituals and long-time traditions. Think about weddings, coronation or awards ceremonies, graduations and anniversaries. 

In the context of celebration, a jewel can be universally recognized as a symbol of a commitment or an achievement. On a more personal level, it can celebrate memories, emotions and feelings. As a sign of intimacy, it can hide secrets whose meaning is only noticed by the wearer and someone who has the key. Often left as a heirloom or gifted on special dates, a jewel can bear layers of meanings that connect us to people we love or special events in our lives. With or without the weight of its material value, it can be carried like a treasure we cherish more than gold.

A metaphor, a memory vessel, a souvenir, a reflexion of a personal expression, a display of social status, a symbol of love that stands the test of time. Jewelry is definitely a way to celebrate life in all its variety of forms and expressions. You’re invited to join the celebration!

 

JURY

Ana Pina (Portugal) | jeweler, gallerist, curator, founder of Tincal lab

Graduates in architecture (FAUP, 2004) and works in this area for some years before discovering the world of jewelry. Jeweler and gallerist, she now divides her work between her personal brand, launched in 2012, and Tincal lab, that is since 2015 an active contemporary jewelry workshop and exhibition space in the center of Porto.

In her work Ana Pina creates unique pieces or limited collections of jewels with a strong abstract and geometric inspiration.

Esteban Erosky (Mexico / Spain) | winner of Tincal lab Challenge 2024 Selection of the Jury Award

Esteban is a jeweler, enameler and researcher.

He has studied in several countries and has specialized in classic enameling techniques, adapting them to contemporary themes, portraying social, human, and gender issues, and claimering individual freedom.

His pieces are short stories, always in a playful language, despite their painful themes.

Justyna Teodorczyk (Poland) | director of the Gallery of Art in Legnica

Justyna Teodorczyk, PhD, culture researcher, art curator, mentor, educator, director of the Gallery of Art in Legnica (Poland), organizer of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER. Curator of many authors jewellery exhibitions organized in the frame of the Festival. She initiated a project that resulted in the creation of the website Biżuteria Artystyczna w Polsce (Artistic Jewellery in Poland), which gathers Polish Jewellery artist.

Apart from goldsmithing, she is involved in contemporary art exhibitions by Polish artists and educational projects. Juror of the jewellery contests, cooperated with e.g. Romanian Jewellery Week, Israel Bienniale, Arts Thread, Global Creative Graduate Showcase, Milano Jewelry Week.