An Imaginary Vacation
We are moving. Travelling the world, through different hands, different minds, and places. Weaving stories. Embodying connections and creativity around the globe…
Almost one year since IO&U formed their group, it is time to add a new chapter to their story. And so, they get together – online of course – to share their thoughts and ideas on new projects. Being in the midst of the pandemic and the members’ distance from each other, they hope to merge their creativity in a new joint venture.
What better way to escape the current situation than with a creative vacation…
An Imaginary Vacation – Jewellery World Tour
IO&U created this new project in reaction to the past year. Their aim is to connect each other in a time of separation, to continue working when everything seems to have stopped and to cross borders when borders are closed. They want to share their love for art and creating – with each other and everyone who is following the project.
“Since the beginning for me, it was a defined artistic reaction to the pandemic. […] but at the same time, it’s our artistic expression as an international group! As an artistic project, it can represent a universal necessity to react and be together, transforming any difficulties and struggles into beauty.” – Margherita Berselli, IO&U
Firstly each artist selects an object from her drawer and a randomly assigned word connected to 2020 is given. They each send their object and word to another group member who gets to work on it for a few days. Soon it goes off again to the next person. Some pieces travel for just a day, others maybe a few weeks, but once they arrive in workshops, studios and apartments all around the globe, that is where IO&U’s Imaginary Vacation begins.
Inside out
After three rounds of travel, the “Jewellery World Tour” is already bearing fruit and IO&U joined the virtual Munich Jewellery Week 2021 to introduce An Imaginary Vacation. A documentary video and four live workbench conversations can be found on their Instagram account. Their new podcast on Soundcloud focuses on personal impressions and a theoretical approach on the project. “We chose varying media to try and show all facets of this project. Even though there will be the final pieces in the end, the project itself already became an artistic performance. We try to not merely document material progress but our thoughts, opinions and feelings on the project in relation to the present”, explains group member, Anna Storck.
After this first event, the “Jewellery World Tour” is scheduled to continue until the end of this summer, for when a final exhibition is planned. The group will show their finished pieces, accompanied by a complete documentation of the whole project. Until then, IO&U will continue to share the making process stories online.
Closeness, Joy, and Lightness
Since April 2021, the travelling objects have now seen multiple different workshops, creative minds, and pairs of hands. It already shows how each piece has developed in its very own way on this experimental journey and how all ten artists have added their own style. However, on this project the artists all share the wish to first understand the pieces’ character to form an individual connection.
What they also share, and this shows clearly whenever they talk about it, is their passion for this project. With high expectations and curiosity, the members await the next parcel’s arrival to dive deep into a new story that wants to be continued and told.
As much as An Imaginary Vacation has become an answer to the present time, this project has also become something more – something simpler. It has created small bubbles of closeness, joy and lightness that allow the artists to take a break and breathe… just like any good vacation would.
FIND IO&U ONLINE:
Instagram: @ioandu_jewellery
Facebook: ioandujewellery
Email: ioandu2020@gmail.com
Soundcloud: listen to the podast on IOandU
Website: www.ioandu.art
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