2024 ‘The Empathy of Objects’
In the 2024 symposium, we will explore the evolving status of material culture in society, crafts, and the arts, influenced by a "Material Turn" and "New Materialism." The study and production of objects, once overshadowed by a focus on the mind, now considers the 'agency' and 'obstinacy' of things, as well as their narratology and intrinsic 'thingness.'

In the discussion of jewelry as a body-related object, the idea of empathic engagement with material things is emphasized. Jewelry serves as a prime example of how objects and bodies interact, recognizing and relating to each other. This interaction allows for a shared experience of emotions, transforming individual suffering into a collective one. Thus, in a mutual exchange, jewelry exemplifies the possibility of objects being part of an empathic process, fostering a community of compassion through the physical connection. This approach highlights a vision where empathy extends beyond human interaction to include the material world, suggesting a broader, more inclusive ethic of shared experience.

Text: Konstantin Haensch
Concept and Programm: Melanie Isverding
Moderation:  Konstantin Haensch & Melanie Isverding  

With:  Luján Cambariere (Berlin, Buenos Aires), matt lambert (Stockholm, Detroit),  Adi Toch (London), Marion Delarue (Paris)  Christina Quandt (Hochschule Wismar), Alexander Triffterer (Hochschule Düsseldorf), Dua Fatima Baig (Hochschule Trier), Hanna Hedman (Stockholm), Malte Guttek (Hanau), Ruth Schneider (Hildesheim), Dr. des.Konstantin Haensch (Berlin, Hildesheim) , Paula Repp Alvarez (Burg Giebichenstein Halle), Susie Heuberger (HAWK Hildesheim), Pouya Bakhshi (ADBK Nürnberg), Sophie Hanagarth (Paris, Strasbourg) Dr. Iris Dankemeyer (Berlin) 

2023 - Eloquent Hands

by Kim Buck and Josephine Winter

The practice of making is a joy and a privilege that we have, and it gives us the ability to express our ideas, feelings and opinions through jewellery or other objects.  It’s a practice of making well, repeating, improving, iterating – to find the form, material or concept that expresses precisely what we intend. We use our hands to touch the material, we hold the tools or press the keys, we handle the objects and by doing so we read the objects with our senses, and we keep working until it is just right. We are using our formal knowledge and our tacit knowledge to ´speak jewellery´. This goes for jewellery making, object making and other strands of making – we are involved in a process of working through concrete or meta material striving to find the right balance of `matters` to accomplish eloquence.  The options are unlimited - decision making and the editing of material with our hands is what this symposium is about.

With  Anni Nørskov Mørch,  Nanna Obel,  Anna Rikkinen,  Jorunn Veiteberg,  Reinhold Ziegler,  Peter Bauhuis,  Tarja Tuupanen,  Rachel Chiodo,  Ruth Gilmour,  Julie Harboe,  Elena Alvarez Lutz,  Daniel Kruger,  Doris Maninger

2022 - Follow Your Bliss

By Claudia Hoppe and David Huycke

For the artist and designer there is no other way than to follow one’s passion – since without passion you can’t make it anywhere. At the same time, there is also something like reality. Getting somewhere is one thing, staying there, building a career and making a living of it is another. During the symposium ‚follow your bliss‘ we will look openly into the wide scope of jewellery-, product- and object-making and discover the different positions, from the artistic expression through unique pieces as well as serial production.

Every domain has its specific tricks of the trade or unspoken rules to follow and we are eager to learn what they are and what they mean. Questions will be posed such as: Is it necessary to compromise to build a successful career in the arts/design? Or is the way to success the way of the heart? And what does being successful mean anyway? Does one have to work hard to make it or is it not work anymore if you really follow your bliss?

We are eager to hear the stories of our international speakers about conscious decisions, lucky coincidences, times of doubt and times of bliss.

With Robert Baines, Aldo Bakker, Kim Buck, Nedda El-Asmar, Mirjam Hiller, Lore Langendries, Eva Olde Monnikhof, Marc Monzo, Anneleen Swillen, Christel Trimborn, Nicole Walger, Julia Wild

2019 - We Are Family

By David Bielander and Helen Britton

For the 50th independent German Jewellery symposium we want to reflect on how our field has changed in the course of half a century with particular focus on the people that have facilitated the development of what is now a burgeoning international community. While great makers are essential, the field wouldn’t be the same big happy family (;-) without those who have chosen to help connect it. And of course one of the greatest examples of the facilitation of connection is this symposium itself, organized independently by volunteers for 50 years! Lets celebrate that amazing feat and listen to others that are not only interested in making and looking at great art, but who are also facilitating the positive growth of our strange little niche.

With Caroline Broadhead UK, Veronika Fabian UK, Brooklyn Metal Works - Erin S. Daily and Brian Weissman USA, Marian Vanhaeren BE/FR, Barbara Schmidt DE, Klimt02 ES, Dirk Allgaier Arnoldsche Publisher DE, Christoph Hefti CH/BE, Cécile Feilchenfeldt CH/FR, Yutaka Minegishi JP/DE, Barbara Paris Gifford USA, Doreen Timmers NL

2017 - Nourischment

By Rutger Emmelkamp, Merijn Bolink and Pieter Elbers

"Take your protein pills and put your helmet" what more do we need than this directive horn Ground Control to Major Tom in David Bowie 's "Space Oddity"? Carbohydrates, fat, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water are all we need to survive. Apart from sduations that Force us to look upon nutrition like that, we tend to search for better, new, different, exciting and the unknown. The kitchen is filled with cookbooks. New ingredents and combinations are explored. Popular cocking programs on TV, restaurants are booked a year ahead, the chef has become a star. Our minds want to be stimulated as much as a, taste buds do. But what feeds us as makers, designers and artists? Why do we go to our studio every day to make what we make? To draw, hammer and paint, produce, transform and shape? What are the sources we work from? Who inspires us? What fires us up and gets us going? And how does this becorne visible? A lot of information about artists can be found on Internet including images of their work.
In this year's edition of the Zimmerhof Symposium we asked the speakers therefore to not only show their work, but mainly to shed a light on their sources, their inspiration, and at feeds them in their practice. For four days we will dive into the different aspects of he meaning of "Nourishment". So there will be great food! As well for thought... This might be he last chance to experience he Zimmerhof Symposium at he fantastic location as you now it! As always the Zimmerhof Symposium will be a great opportunity to meet people, get informed, discuss and to have a good time.
Hope to meet you there.

With Sonja Bäumel, Patricia Pisters, Naomi Filmer, Miranne Theunissen, Linda Molenaar, Katja Prins, Steinbeisser, Lauren Kallmann, Sigurd Bronger, Kiko Gianocca

2016 - HD Treasure

By Florian Milker, Annika Pettersson & Adam Grinovich

The theme for Zimmerhof 2016 “HD (or High Definition) TREASURE” combines an exploration into contemporary aesthetics with a classic theme of the secret and precious. We enter this theme through the perspective of remix culture, the agreement that everything has been done. But we are not satisfied with this assumption. We strive to discover the unique in emerging forms of expression. “HD” a new term, a term present in everyday life from the smartphones that we keep in our pockets, to the advertisements we see on public transportation, as well as in fine art installations and videos. HD: the new dominant aesthetic in contemporary life. HD TREASURE assembles a group of artists both working for and against this new paradigm, attempting to see the TREASURE through the lens of a means of expression still yet to be fully defined. | Treasure represents the pursuit of the glorious and valuable, a quest for a mythic capsule of value and heritage. Jewelry is inherently related to this concept, focused precious forms that are waiting to be discovered. Makers of jewelry embark on personal abstract journeys to discover themselves in materials. Critics and thinkers can draw lines within the field, creating sublime maps that trace a history of treasure making, treasure hiding, and treasure finding.
Programmers, designers, gallerists, and artists meet on an HD platform, the world wide web of information, a platform of infinite dimensions. Slick glossy screens broadcast HD images, miniature cameras record HD videos, complex algorithms create HD sounds, networks of computational power data-mine HD currency. This is not a dream: This is our reality. HD: absolute clarity; brilliant, defined, expressing all known dimensions, layers of color suspended in liquid crystal cells. | “HD TREASURE” investigates the combination of technology (both new and old) and its impact on aesthetics. Within these new forms are new emotions, new ways of seeing and feeling arising? Is this the future or a passing trend? Are we, as makers, thinkers, as sensitive beings approaching towards the divine? Or are we burying ourselves into an entropic abyss of information?

With Richard Van Diessen, Patricia Domingues, Jantje Fleischhut, Melanie Isverding, Jiro Kamata, Göran Kling, Benjamin Lignel, Georg Lisek, Ted Noten, Kellie Riggs, Atty Tantivit, Julia Walter

2015 - What is the Future of Jewellery?

By CURRENT OBSESSION - Contemporary Jewellery Magazine & Platform

As Contemporary Jewellery builds up the awareness of its identity, we may see growth of successful cross-disciplinary collaborations. By being placed in a wider context of today’s visual culture, Contemporary Jewellery can learn new strategies. We are curious about what may begin to happen when jewellery, art, design and fashion truly start to converge.
What are Jewellery’s Icons?
Icon is an ambiguous word simultaneously connoting a religious symbol loaded with historical and spiritual content, a flickering symbol on a computer desktop distilled and reduced in meaning, or an actual person – a rock star or a celebrity. Does Contemporary Jewellery have a system of symbols and signs connecting the past and the future? And if so, where do these symbols and signs belong: in a subculture, within the mainstream, or have they lost their cultural relevance? | What are the Icons of the Future?
We are interested in new attitudes, new types of projects and new personalities to explore this idea: join us to hear talks by exhibition makers, researchers, trend forecasters, artists and jewellers who have explored the challenges and the confines of their own disciplines.

With: Beatrice Brovia & & Nicolas Cheng, Adam Grinovich, Matylda Krzykowski, Mallory Weston, Rutger Emmelkamp, Lin Cheung, Nelly Zagury, David Bielander, Zachary Androus, Elvira Golombosi, Jing He, Florian Milker, Miro Sazdic, Pravu Mazumbar 

2013 - UK: Mind Your Language

By Casey Fenn, Timothy Information Limited, Laura Bradshaw-Heap

This years symposium we will be exploring, questioning, pulling apart and putting back together, some of the
many issues facing the linguistics of jewellery today. Especially focusing on our communication with one another
and our different audiences.

What is the language of contemporary jewellery? No seriously, what is the language of art jewellery? Are you
reading this in English? Is English your second language? Are you American? Are you getting the gist so far?
Or are you reading the German translation? Is it accurate? I wouldn’t know, I’m afraid I don’t speak la Deutsch. I
mean, has every nuance, colloquialism and bad pun made it over in one piece? Blahdy blahdy blah blah. That
last sentace is sentance .I only put it in to test my translating friend.

But I can hear what you are saying. Surely the work is the language or the language is the work. So hey! Let’s all
sit around “Miss Piggy” by ‘Ted Noten’ and listen to what it’s got to say. Actually I’ve never seen “Miss Piggy” by
‘Ted Noten’ in the flesh. I’ve only seen photos of “Miss Piggy” by ‘Ted Noten’. It looks quite big. Oh, and I’ve read
what that French journalist had to say about it in the English translation of that article in that Swedish magazine.

What is the language of contemporary jewellery and is anybody listening? Come along to Zimmerhof and we’ll
have a good old chat about it!

English Tea will be served at 4pm daily (the frogs legs are off!)

2009 - Full of Facets

By Herman Hermsen, Sofia Beilharz, Phylicia Gilijamse, Maryvonne Wellen

With the theme “Full of Facets“ we would like to address to jewellery in all its diversity and richness. The symposium will be characterized by lectures from renomated jewellery artists and well-known designers who are specialized in contemporary jewellery and/or serie-design. Futhermore the program will contain theoretical
controversies and reflections.
New materials, innovative concepts and techniques like 3D modelling, rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing are going to be brought forward though presenting divers projects on this subject. Confrontations, different points of view to jewellery and new interpretations as well as definitions of the term jewellery will be discussed. We will focus on jewellery as an important, independent communication medium at the intersection with contemporary art, fashion and productdesign.

With: Peter Skubic, Liesbeth den Besten, Marc Monzó, Elisabeth Holder, Isabella van den Bos, Jan Spille, Beate Eismann, Christina Karababa, Ted Noten, Chequita Nahar, Nedda el Asmar, Bety Majernikova, Lucy McRae, Alumni: Pia Farrugia, Coco Dunmire, Ann Wanten, Patricia Solarte G, Francesca Lanzavecchia, Nicole Lehmann, Denise Reytan.

2008 - Beauty and Seduction

By Pieter Elbers and Philip Sajet

With Lucy Sarneel, Dr. Heidi Bollmann, Tabea Reulecke, Karl Fritsch, Maud Traon, Joanne Grimonprez, Silvia Rodo, Andreas Lehmann, Tanel Veenre, Pauline Held, Diana Tipoja, Prof.Dr.W. Menninghaus, Francis Willemstijn, Barbara Paganin, Elizabeth Fischer, Célio Braga, Sunny Bergman, Stefan Heuser, Wiebke Meurer, Nicole Brémond

2007 ... Jewellery stories

By Doris Betz and Helen Britton

With Cornelie Holzach, Dorothea Prühl, Leo Caballero, Eija Mustonen 
Pravu Mazumdar, David Bielander, Mari Funaki, Otto Künzli, Karin Seufert, Warwick Freeman.
Student's lectures: Mirei Takeuchi, Noemie Doge, Florie Dupont, Susanne Kaube, Anne Fischer, Petra Rhinow, Berthold Schweiz

2006 ... and friends

By Peter Bauhuis & Andi Gut

With Doris Betz, Evert Nijland, Castello Hansen, Susan Pietzsch, Nina Mårtensson, Sabine Schwippel, Christoph Straube, Marie Bonfils, Love Jönsson, Johanna Dahm, Edoardo Perri & Angela Rui, Monica Gaspar, San Keller, Gebrüder Freitag, Hans Stofer.

2005 - Burning Passion

By: David Bielander & Felix Lindner

With: Wolli Lieglein, Joël Eschbach, Andi Gut, Yuka Oyama, Renée C. Hoogland, Silvia Weidenbach, Constanze Schreiber, Jiro Kamata, Cédric Champeval, Marius Pfannenstiel, Helen Britton, Volker Atrops, Miecke Oosterman & Ward Schrijver, Heiko Damm, Annette Munk, Daniel Kruger

2004 - Borax and Cream

By Theo Smeets & Thomas Dierks

With Teike Asselbergs & Elias Tieleman - Orgacom, Jivan Astfalck, Ulrike Bartels, Marc-Jens Biegel, Hilde de Decker, Marjolijn van Duyn, Christel Hofmans, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kern, Beate Klockmann, Rudolf Kocéa, Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. h.c. Siegfried Maser, Ulrich Reithofer, Inga Samii - Kunstkomm e.V.