Opening of the contest exhibition "AquaTerra"

Opening of the competitive exhibition "AquaTerra" of the Fifth International Biennial of Amber Artworks ALATYR 2013 took place in the Kaliningrad Amber Museum. The Exposition lasts until 25 August. 

This year in the major project, which includes except for the competitive exhibition, also scientific and proctical conference "Amber and its imitations", educational programme, publishing of the catalogue, 105 artists from the UK, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland,Portugal, Russia took part. 241 artworks were submitted to approval of the professional Jury, most of them were created by Kaliningrad artists. 

Press-conference, went before the opening ceremony: president of the Jury, deputy director for research of the Amber Museum Irina Toropova, Jury members - Juris Gagainis (Latvia), Giedymin Jablonski (Poland), Pierre-Marie Bernard (France), Benno Simma (Italy), Natalia Petrova (Russia) and director of the Amber Museum Tatiana Suvorova answered questions of the journalists from Kaliningrad, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Vilnius. 

Juris Gagainis - professor, head of the Metal and Design Department of the Latvian Academy of Arts among others said:

– For the third time I'm a Jurymember of the competition. I can compare. I must notice that in 2011 at the Fourth International Biennial of Amber Artworks ALATYR 2011 there were much more kitsch and "heavy", overfull with details works, clued of several fragments dishes, clocks, candlesticks that came into conflict with the conception of the contemporary biennial. This year the works are "lighter", of high artistic value, howevere  overflow of different materials is stil there.  And it is important to work more carefuly with amber, as the stone is very active itself and will always "argue" with what is near.  Generally the exhibition has left a good impression, There are objects, as well as jewellery and conceptional works presented there.

Irina Toropova mentioned that the Biennial is the fifth, so the jubilee one and it is possible to summarize and talk about results of the project in general. 

– Surely skills of the artists have meaningly improved as in making of interior objects, so of jewellery - she told. - Amber is increasingly becoming amaterial for the  high art, excellent mean for evocation of artistic images. Theme of the exhibition "AquaTerra" is connected to the fact that UNESCO  announced 2013 the inernational year co-water space, what is extremely topic for the Baltic Sea, which many states have access to. The goal of the artists was to show by means of symbolic images the essence of these elements - Earthe and Water. Also the one of their amazing fusion, which  after all brought to appearence of the sun stone, as we know it. The Grand Prix of the competition recieved an artist from Denmark Mette Saabye for the series of rings.In the first place the Jury members pointed out the author's skill to present the natural beauty of the sun stone and to unite it with metal harmonically. Besides they saw high skill and images that could bring Mette Saabye the first place in almost every nomination, there were four of them - "Skill", "Creation of artistic image", "Innovation" and "Music in stone", dedicated to the 140th anniversary of Sergei Rakhmaninov.

Then the festive opening ceremony of the exhibition "AquaTerra" and awarding of laureates and diplomants of the competition started, in which representatives of the legislative and executive powers of Kaliningrad region and also diplomatic missions participated. Among the speakers with  opening speeches were: First Deputy Minister of Culture of Kaliningrad region Elena Koshemchuk, Minister of industrial policy, development of business and trade Dmitry Chemakin, deputy of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma Mikhail Chesalin, vice-consul of the Consulate General of Federal Republic of Germany in Kaliningrad Daniel Lissner, cultural attache of the Consulate General of Lithuania in Kaliningrad Romanas Senapedis, consul the Consulate General of Poland in Kaliningrad Robert Hondzynski, secretary of the Chancellery of Embassy of Latvian Republic in Kaliningrad Solvita Martinsone. For the years of realization of the project the "amber circle" has expanded, - told director of the Kaliningrad Amber Museum Tatiana Suvorova. - We have new partners living beyond the region of Baltic Sea - from France, Italy. Denmark is one of participants - the country, where amber has been treated scince the ancient time.  So there is a good reason that Grand Prix of our competition in 2011 and 2013 recieved Danish artists. Cooperating in international projects with the association "Once, an artist...", which is led by Jean-Claude Guillemot, we saw, how interesting is working with amber for French authors. They set a task - "to explode" the current view on the sun stone and to show works that are drasticly diferent from thos emade in Baltic countries.  And they quite managed to make it.

Atmosphere of the celebration was created by perfomance of the string trio, fashion shows of collections "Amber Room" by the artist and stylist, laureate of the Kaliningrad award "Inspiration" Svetlana Orlova, clothes and jewellery "Yantarina" by young designers from the studio of Svetlana Gnatush, jewellery from sun stone "Water-Earth" by SP Trusov A.K., jewellery of Polish artist, participant of the biennial Jazek Skrzynski.

Then guests were invited to the Museum halls, where they could see works of the competitors at the exhibition "AquaTerra".