"World of Enamelling" 4th International Enamelling Exhibition, Salou Spain 2001"

Our thanks to the editor of the "Coburger Emailrundbrief", Edmund Massow for the following review of the recent exhibition organised under the auspices of the Executive Board of the Spanish Enamel Association, CIDAE, mentioned in the first issue of eNAMEL . "This was the first time I had attended an exhibition of CIDAE in Salou. The exhibition building, the Torre Velle, is remarkable. An old multi-storey guardroom-tower with everything executed in rough style, set in an extensive garden. The showrooms (on two levels) and the CIDAE enamel museum with work from many countries are inside the tower. As a jury member I had the opportunity to visit the exhibition before the opening. Andreu Vilasis, Nuria Lopez-Ribalta as organiser and their helpers had done an excellent job. Only someone who has organised an international enamel exhibition can appreciate how much work must be done in advance. More than 200 pieces had to be unpacked, freed from the packing dirt, assigned, registered and arranged. Pictures suitable for the catalogue had to be found from approximately 500 slides. Compiling the list of participants for the catalogue was also no easy venture because of the many unfamiliar (to Spanish eyes and tongues) names. Another problem was to exhibit the objects so that they could be seen clearly but would still be secure. A very good solution was put in place in Salou. The staff built 1 meter high tables, which partly rise into the room in T-form. The tables were enclosed by lockable 1.50 meter high acrylic panels. On the upper floor free-standing, multilevel display cases completed the display facilities. The objects were very well presented, with each piece having sufficient space to be effectively seen. Each artist's work was arranged in a small group so that the relationships were immediately apparent. It was of great value to place work together in such a fashion so that an overall uniformity could be seen. The lighting was well done, although one might have wished for an additional spotlight here and there. The standard of the individual works and thus the whole exhibition was high. The reason might perhaps be that the topic "boxes" made slightly higher demands than is usual on the artists. Such "topic" exhibitions are extremely interesting and allow better comparisons to be made than exhibitions where all kinds of enamels, from jewellery to architecturally-scaled pieces are shown. The variety of the solutions put forward was astonishing both in the basic forms and in the enamel techniques used. From South America came predominantly wooden boxes with inserted or stuck-on enamel discs using different techniques. Entries from Japan were almost all technically excellent all-over-enamelled cloisonne containers. They were traditionally more conservative in design and therefore easily recognisable. Many works from Spain exhibited their common painting techniques. The German work was varied and in parts unconventional both in the form of the boxes and the enamel techniques used. Unfortunately the catalogue conveys only a weak impression of the reality of the exhibition (as is always the case). Comparing works via the catalogue was also difficult because in some cases a small work was shown in a big picture and a big work in a small picture. The jury put much thought and effort into choosing the prizewinners. Jurors first inspected the exhibition on their own and each nominated 10 -12 of their favoured works. After this a first comparison was carried out. It was astonishing that much agreement was apparent even at this first stage. A second walk and the following comparison reduced the number of the selected works further. A third joint inspection was carried out during which the work still in contention for awards was discussed. The awarding of prizes was then carried out unanimously! Many visitors came to the opening in the evening. A large enamel artist group came from Japan. Other foreign artists came from Russia, Germany and the USA. With gratifyingly short speeches (whose contents I cannot reproduce because of a lack of knowledge of Spanish) the official opening was carried out. A lovingly built-up buffet looked after the physical well-being while a saxophone quartet contributed to the entertainment with pop and jazz melodies. It is regrettable that this exhibition can be shown only in Salou. It would be worthy to go as a touring-exhibition around the enamel world. The CIDAE, primarily Andreu Vilasis and Nuria Lopez Ribalta, but also the sponsors and the representatives of the city of Salou cannot be thanked enough by the enamel artists for the work done in hosting this really outstanding enamel exhibition "La Capsa" .INFORMATION " IV International exhibition "World of Enamelling" Salou 2001". eNAMEL wishes to thank Edmund for the kind provision of his report. . go to Edmund Massow's Website