Chi ha paura...?-Who’s afraid...?

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Alba Cappellieri

Electa, Milan, 2011, English and Italian

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

ISBN: 9788837086985

From the Publisher. Founded by Gijs Bakker, one of the 20th century's most innovative figures in jewelry and founder of Droog Design, the Chi ha paura? collection made its first appearance in 1996 in collaboration with Marijke Vallanzasca, consecrating the link between design and jewelry.

Up until 1960 jewelry was something made from precious metals and stones, its essential ingredients ring-fenced the concept. Thanks to Gijs Bakker, contemporary jewelry lost its traditional definition and assumed new meanings and values. For the first time ideas outweighed intrinsic value and the creative component outstripped carats. International designers turned the full glare of their ingenuity onto jewelry and thanks to their input, but above all thanks to Gijs Bakker's vision reproducibility became a project, new technologies a conquest and new sales channels, such as internet, a challenge. This was the dawn of design in jewelry.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition held May 21–June 21, 2011 at Contrà del Monte, Venice, Italy, Vicenza dedicated an exhibition to Chi ha paura? and presented 90 pieces designed since the inception of the project, including some extremely rare examples, confirming the Vicenza Exhibition Centre's role in promoting culture and innovation in jewelry.

“Chi ha paura? presents jewels that are surprising in content and concept, provocative and even explosive, certainly never dull, calling into question the very idea of what contemporary jewelry” is all about comments Alba Cappellieri, curator of the exhibition and professor of jewelry design at the Milan Polytechnic. Text in Italian and English; catalogue entries in Italian.

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