The sixth edition of GemGenève, aimed at jewellery professionals and enthusiasts, will run from Thursday 11 May to Sunday 14 May 2023 in Palexpo Hall 1, Geneva, with 13,000 sqm of exhibition space, and will again coincide with Geneva Luxury Week’s major Spring auctions.
The event’s designers are already hard at work on a new setting in which plants, organic life, and light are the dominant themes, in a pavilion that will be hosting GemGenève for the very first time.
Still true to its exclusive recipe – a trade fair created by exhibitors for exhibitors and open to the general public, this meeting brings together a diverse range of gems and jewels and offers a unique platform for expression, dedicated to the world of exceptional diamonds, precious stones, pearls, antique and contemporary jewellery. It also features prestigious designers, emerging talents, and boasts the participation of prestigious schools and the young designers of tomorrow.
Over and above its role as a tradeshow, the event is placing increasing emphasis on culture, young people, training, and passing on knowledge. GemGenève is constantly seeking new opportunities and projects to be showcased. It is important to the organisers for each new edition to feature a cultural programme of the highest quality.
“We attribute just as much importance to precious stones and the creation and design of jewellery as we do to the fostering of real solidarity, by uniting the international community of traders in precious stones and antique jewellery, designers and all those with a passion for jewels”.
Thomas Faerber, Co-founder of GemGenève
THE 2023 PROGRAMME
After visiting Halls 7 and 6 for the previous five editions, GemGenève will be coming to Palexpo Hall 1 this May, giving the event 13,000sqm of exhibition space.
The new venue is of course an opportunity to present a new layout. For the third time in five years, the organisers will again be redesigning the exhibition space, visitor routes, and the main entrance to make the most of the available space and give exhibitors the best possible exposure.
In a new development of the concept implemented for the November 2022 edition in Hall 6, for the forthcoming edition GemGenève exhibitors will be arrayed around four coffee station areas, two main aisles and a lounge hosting exhibition spaces, projects, after-work musical and literary events.
Parisian design agency Autre Idée has been working with the organisers since 2021; for this spring edition, they have opted for a setting based on the theme of plants and organic life.
As for its five previous editions, GemGenève will be bringing together the very best international dealers from across the whole spectrum of the jewellery industry. Those key players in this show that is conceived and designed with them in mind, offer together an impressive variety of hard-to-find pieces to discover and acquire. Ranging from affordable jewellery for everyday wear via antique gems and exceptional pieces worthy of museums to contemporary creations illustrating all the genius of today’s emerging talents.
Once again this year, the organising committee is preparing surprises that will gradually be unveiled. These include:
DESIGNERS’ VILLAGE
Emerging talents and New Designers
Led by Nadège Totah, the categories Emerging Talents and New Designers are dedicated to young talents and offers them unprecedented visibility. One of the most recent discoveries to be joining the Emerging Talents section will be Belgian jewellery artist Fred Fa. An outstanding designer, Fred Fa does all his sketches, technical drawings and gouache jewellery designs by hand. His brilliant craftsmanship, sculptural abilities and technological knowhow allow him to create extraordinary, bespoke pieces – including masterworks enhanced and set with exceptional stones.
Fred Fa
Butterfly takes-off – Mother-of-Pearl, Diamond, Tsavorite, Rubellite and Pink Gold Bracelet
Serendipity Jewelry, one of the Emerging Talents at the November 2022 edition, will be here this time in the ‘New Designers’ category, as will the talented Austy Lee Art Jewellery from Hong Kong. A former graphic designer, the stylist creates daring, psychedelic, sculptural, and complex pieces. The inspiration and styles behind Austy’s collections draw on an eclectic range of themes blending pop-punk, avant-garde, religion, antiquity, and fashion – a name to watch, and creations to discover at GemGenève.
Designer Vivarium, curated by Vivienne Becker
Vivienne Backer is an art and jewellery historian, journalist, and author who has partnered with the organisers since the earliest days of GemGenève. She curates the Designer Vivarium, devoted to international designers and first introduced in 2018. The Vivarium features talented designers that Vivienne Becker has spotted and selected at a time when they are as yet relatively unknown.
Strong & precious – Ukrainian Jewellers
Launched by Olga Oleksenko in May 2022 as a response to the war in Ukraine and supported by the co-founders of GemGenève, the Strong and Precious – Ukrainian Jewellers project will be back at this edition of the event with another presentation of the stirring works by Ukrainian designers, in a gesture of support amid the current situation in the country.
EXPOSITION COLLABORATIVE
Automatons and Music take centre stage, curated by the Geneva Museum of Art and History (MAH)
With a policy of promoting art and culture dating back to the eighteenth century, Geneva’s Musée d’Art et d’Histoire is now a leading museum and one of the city’s institutions. In collaboration with GemGenève, the ‘MAH’ will be organising an off-site exhibition at the event featuring exceptional automata and other musical and artistic objets d’art from its collections.
Following on from the last two exhibitions at GemGenève, Fabulous Carl Fabergé and Micromosaics through the ages, the organisers are keen to highlight jewellery heritage together with all the related arts and crafts – thereby offering acclaimed museum institutions a showcase as part of the event’s official programme.
Curated by the Museum of Art and History, the exhibition will be collaborative in nature, featuring unique pieces selected by the museum alongside items relating to the chosen theme provided by exhibitors and partners.
VILLAGE DES SAVOIRS
The Singapore Gem Museum returns to GemGenève
The museum aims to make gemmology accessible and attractive to a wider audience and welcomes families by offering them a fun and interactive learning space. With this in mind, The Gem Museum will take over the GemGenève Village des Savoirs and present an exhibition consisting of precious stones and scientific awareness workshops. Demonstrations, observations, discoveries… A space where you can discover all the wonders of gems.
The Villa of Lost Arts
At the initiative of GemGenève and Geneva-based jeweller Herbert Horovitz, who also runs the Gem Collectors Bookshop, the Villa space will be devoted to lost arts: craftsmanship that is becoming rare or verging on the extinct. Visitors will be astounded and amazed by the breadth of trades that are becoming increasingly hard to find. In May 2023, the Villa will be housing craftsmen such as hard-stone mosaicists, pearl peelers and threaders, polishers, engravers, enamellers, stone-setters, stone engravers, lapidarists, sheath-makers, gilders of small ironware, electro-formers and gold-beaters. The aim is to raise awareness of these trades by stimulating dialogue and engaging with the public to share their various areas of expertise.
Workshops, meetings and exhibitions will be held in the space throughout the four days of the exhibition to revive interest in these skills – so important to the jewellery industry as a whole.
COLLABORATION WITH SCHOOLS
Partnerships of GemGenève with different schools of art, jewellery and other educational institutions linked to this professional sector, are testament to the founder’s fundamental desire to ensure that passion is passed on from generation to generation. Four awards will be presented once again at the May 2023 edition: the ‘Visitors’ Choice’ Award for the CFC project; the ASMEBI award for the CFC project; the ‘Visitors’ Choice’ Award for the HEAD x Grand Théâtre de Genève x GemGenève project, and the Eric Horovitz Foundation Award for the CFC project.
Gouache jewellery competition for schools offering Swiss ‘federal certificate of proficiency’ qualifications on the theme: ‘Nothing is lost, everything is transformed’
Students at three schools delivering courses for the Certificat Fédéral de Capacité proficiency certificate (École Technique de la Vallée de Joux (ETVJ), the Geneva Vocational Training Centre for Arts & Crafts (CFP Arts de Genève) and the Neuchâtel Vocational Training Centre (CPNE) Applied Arts Department are being invited to complete a gouache jewellery project on the theme ‘Nothing is lost […], everything is transformed’ (Antione Laurent de Lavoisier).
The need to address present-day challenges while anticipating future viability opens up the exploration of a range of topics: the circular economy, sustainable development, avoiding waste, recycling, reuse, handing down, and more. Attributed to Lavoisier, this apocryphal and abbreviated phrase offers CFC students a chance to investigate the use of resources, their revitalisation, their lifecycle – and our relationship to time.
Based on the stones they are provided with, the students will have to devise a project to design and create a jewel or finery embodying their findings in accordance with the theme.
This year, the company Fuli Gemstones is providing the students with peridots (olive-coloured gemstones), whose new cut will be presented at the competition. Fuli Gemstones seeks to provide a constant and fully traceable supply of peridots from mines that comply with safety standards, backed by active, global marketing and initiatives to raise awareness of the brand.
- CFC Visitors’ Choice Award (CFC = Federal Certificate of Proficiency)
- ASMEBI award for the CFC project
- Fondation Eric Horovitz Award
Contest HEAD X GRAND THÉÂTRE DE GENÈVE (GTG) X GEMGENÈVE
The three-way partnership set up in 2020 is alive and well. For the May edition of the show, HEAD students are being asked to create items of jewellery inspired by Claudio Monteverdi’s opera The Return of Ulysses, to be performed at Geneva’s Grand Theatre from 27 February to 5 March 2023. The opera was written in 1640 at the Teatro San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice.
- HEAD Visitors’ Choice Award and Grand Théâtre de Genève
Fondation Eric Horovitz Award
The Eric Horovitz Foundation will honour one of the students taking part in the CFC project. The selected student will receive personalised support for her/his career plan (trainings, help in finding an internship or a permanent position, equipment purchases).
Set up in 2020 by Christine Horovitz in memory of her husband, the mission of the Foundation is to support Swiss emerging jewellery talents through training and the promotion of their creative output.
The winner will be selected by a panel of 5 individuals spanning the world of jewellery: a journalist, a teacher, a dealer, a gemmologist, and a jeweller.
CREA
CREA will be managing the CREA EYES Instagram account, creating and editing digital content directly at the show (photos, videos, interviews with leading figures, etc.). CREA Genève – OMNES Education is a school providing Bachelors and Masters degrees in Marketing, Communication & Digital.
Donna Jewel x GemGenève Space
For the very first time, journalist, consultant, influencer and founder of @DonnaJewel Laura Inghirami will have her own space, devoted to the Italian schools training up-and-coming young jewelsmiths. She will be hosting Milan’s Galdus School as part of a collaborative project with GemGenève. Founded over thirty years ago in the San Galdino parish district from which it takes its name, Galdus was set up in 1990 by a group of training and careers guidance professionals.
The theme of Donna Jewel’s space is ‘No Limit’ – very much in keeping with the work of Laura Inghirami, acclaimed by Forbes Italia as one of the 100 best Italian talents aged under 30, who herself highlights the limitless talents of young people with a passion for jewellery on her Instagram account.
Young people dream big dreams, seek to explore new frontiers, and express themselves unrestrainedly. Therein lies the inspiration for the theme Donna Jewel is seeking to develop in partnership with GemGenève: limitless creativity.
The 20 students selected from the Galdus School are being invited to create a piece of jewellery that’s daring, experimental, and off-the-wall, giving free rein to their artistic talent using any materials, forms, and designs they can come up with: after all, there’s no limit to imagination itself!
SPECIAL EVENTS
Katerina Perez 10th anniversary
Katerina Perez, influencer and jewellery specialist who is internationally recognised for her commitment and expertise in jewellery, will be celebrating 10 years of involvement in the world of jewellery. To mark the occasion, she will be organising a unique talk at GemGenève looking back at developments in the jewellery market over the last ten years. There will be a particular focus on issues such as how leading brands are positioned, new types of sales and purchasing, and the advent of a new generation of collectors.
Conferences and seminars
Conferences held on GemGenève will offer its visitors an unprecedented vision of gemmology and jewellery, allowing them to meet renowned experts in their field and to gain access to insider knowledge.
All of the talks, podcasts, and publications will be available online free of charge (registration required) on the GemGenève digital platform.
GemGenève & Literature
In its ongoing quest to highlight all art forms relating to jewellery, GemGenève will once again be hosting the Gem Collectors Bookshop, with a selection of old and rare books presented by Herbert Horovitz and Christophe Dubois. The store will be located close to booksellers Bernard Letu, once again displaying collections of exclusive works dealing with the art of jewellery.
This section will be hosted in a lounge setting, where renowned authors invited by GemGenève will be welcomed to book-signing sessions for their various works on jewellery.
