Challenge 2024 Jewelry and Freedom

  

This is a special year for Portugal. On April 25th of 2024, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of a dictatorship that had lasted for more than 4 decades. Imagine waking up one day and the world has changed. But freedom is a volatile and fragile concept, 50 years later we cannot take it for granted.

The red carnation is the symbol of our April Revolution, for us a symbol of freedom.
But what does it mean to be free? What does freedom mean to you? How would you represent it?

The concept of freedom is diverse and complex. Political freedom (or the lack of it) can be associated with physical imprisonment, war, the tyranny of power. But we can also talk about freedom of expression, free will, freedom that promotes equality - after all, where does ours begin and the other's end?
After fundamental rights are guaranteed, the concept of freedom takes on more personal contours - freedom to act, think, decide, love... basically, to live our lives according to our own criteria, our beliefs. More than ever we discuss about equality of gender and gender identity, the freedom to choose, to be ourselves, without suffering any type of discrimination for it. The future or a utopia?

For some, freedom can be the absence of ties and possessions. Will we really be free if we are financially dependent on a job formatted by society, emotionally linked to someone or simply caught up by our own expectations? On the other hand, can we fully enjoy our freedom, absolutely alone and isolated from the world?

For an individual to be free, they need to be independent and autonomous, but also informed. Nowadays, freedom of access to information is illusory and often a form of control. How can we distinguish the real from the manipulated?

We leave all these reflections for those who accept the Challenge! You are free to transform them into jewels.

 

INFORMATION

With the main objective to show the quality and diversity of contemporary jewelry, opening its doors to the general public, Tincal lab invites every year jewelers from around the world for a Challenge: the creation of up to 3 pieces with a maximum price each, inspired by a theme.

From this Open Call launched in June results an international event of exhibition and sale of unique characteristics. The opening is at Tincal lab in November, on the date of Simultaneous Openings event in Miguel Bombarda quarter, in Porto, accompanied by the release of a catalog.

In each edition, since 2018, has been awarded the Selection of the Jury Award and two Selection of the Public Awards (voting in person and online), consisting of an exhibition at Tincal lab over the following year.

In the latest edition, in 2023, we gathered almost 200 exclusive jewelry pieces created by the 78 jewelers from 31 different countries selected by the jury from almost 300 applications.

 

In 2024, the tenth edition of Tincal lab Challenge launches the theme: Jewelry and Freedom.

The maximum price of each piece will be of 150€.

The opening will be at Tincal lab on November 16th of 2024.

 

DEADLINES

Application: until June 30th 2024

Selection: until July 21st 2024

Formalization of registration: until July 31st 2024

Reception of pieces: until September 30th 2024

Exhibition: from November 16th to December 31st 2024

Possibility of itinerancy during 2025 (optional)

Period of sale in shop and online: until June 30th 2025 (adaptable, in case of itinerancy)

Return of pieces to the artists: from July 1st 2025 (for the artists that don’t take part in the itinerancy)

  

WHY A MAXIMUM PRICE?

Presenting a price cap we intend to demystify the concept of art jewelry near the general public, to remove it from the context of the inaccessible art gallery and start a discussion towards understanding its value.

We want the price cap to be a differentiating element, but also a statement. Something that will catch the attention of the visitor.

We also aspire to allow everybody to buy a unique piece of jewelry for a relatively accessible price. This way people can get out of their comfort zones without feeling restricted by their budgets.

For the artists, this can also be an opportunity to think outside the box - to create something different, with different means or -why not - to exceptionally allow someone to have one of their pieces for an incredibly low price.

Working on a budget, without compromising quality, identity and creativity - that is the Challenge too.

  

JURY

Ana Pina (Portugal) | jeweler, founder/curator 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.

 

Judy McCaig (Scotland / Spain) | winner of Tincal lab Challenge 2023 Selection of the Jury Award

Judy McCaig is a Scottish jeweller, printmaker and painter. She studied at DJCAD in Dundee, Scotland, before realising her three-year Master's degree at The Royal College of Art in London. Practising printmaking for several years after leaving college, then established her workshop in London in 1987. Since 1991 she has lived and worked in Barcelona, teaching at the Massana School and Taller Perill.

Her work often features abstract landscapes which draw on observations from her extensive travels and studies of ancient and modern cultures.

  

Cristina Filipe (Portugal) | jeweler, lecturer, curator and author in the field of contemporary jewelry

Cristina Filipe (Lisbon, 1965) holds a PhD in Heritage Studies from the Catholic University of Porto and is a researcher at UCP/EA/CITAR. Master in Arts and Design by the Surrey Institute of Art & Design. She studied jewellery at Ar.Co, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Royal College of Arts. She was a lecturer on the jewellery course at Ar.Co (1989-2015) and at ESAD, Matosinhos (2001-2007). She’s since 1998 a guest lecturer at multiple international schools.

Author, editor and scientific coordinator (Contemporary Jewellery in Portugal. From the 1960s Avant-Garde to the Early 21th Century, Cold Sweat, Colection J), she has exhibited since 1984 and is, since 2005, programmer and curator. She founded and was president of PIN (2004-2023) and created the 1st Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial (2021).