Once upon a time, there lived a princess in a beautiful kingdom. One day, an epidemic swept through the city, causing all residents to disappear. All alone in the deserted streets, the princess sought refuge in a mysterious house.
The house was referred to as mysterious because no one really knew what it held inside. However, it contained a resource center for professionals in the creative industries and related sectors, as well as flexible workspaces, meeting rooms, workshops, and seminar rooms. A large area was also dedicated to public activities, with various exhibitions, fashion shows, and art performances held every year.
As she wandered through this space full of surprises, the princess pricked her finger on an artwork and fell asleep. During a lunar eclipse, a bird landed beside her and transformed into a fairy. She said the formula bo bidi bo bidi boom and with a wave of her magic wand, a beautiful golden ring with a large diamond appeared next to the princess’ hand.
Eventually, the ring began to inflate like a balloon! As they say in the kingdom, "the size doesn't matter" and "all that glitters isn't gold". The princess sighed but did not wake up and the disillusioned fairy reverted to her bird form.
After a while, as the inhabitants recovered from the epidemic and regained a sense of community, the mysterious house issued an invitation to feast. Although the party was beautiful and many gems were admired, the princess remained dozing in the middle of it all! She was watched, discussed, even laughed at. Nothing appeared to worry her, she seemed to be on hold, between sleep and activity, as if on standby.
Someone █████████████████ ██████████████████████ █████████████████████ ███████████████████████ ███ princess awoke.
████████████████████ ███████████████████████ ████████████████████ ████████████████████ ██████████████████████ ███████████contemporary jewellery,█ ██████████████████ ████████████████████ █████████████████ new way.
█████████████████████ ███ the epilogue is a happy one.
"In Sleeping Beauty (+), I stage myself like Sleeping Beauty: I l lie with my eyes closed, one arm at my side and the other raised by an armrest I designed and pointed towards a display, also produced in my studio, erecting an enormous balloon in the shape of an engagement ring, the archetypal jewel.
The sleek, playful staging refers to the expression "putting a ring on your finger". By combining the symbolism of jewelry with the archaic legends of children's stories, which play an important role in our development as beings, Sleeping Beauty (+), offers the spectator the opportunity to become an actor and to reflect on the characteristics of our time through jewelry, specifically the engagement ring, a piece of jewelry that speaks of emotional and material value, identity, social roles, risk-taking, consent, power, commitment, and transmission over time.
After the performance installation Sleeping Beauty (+) had been on display for two hours and had been passed by more than 300 people, a man removed the ring from the base, handed it to me which made me wake up. In reference to the certificate of authenticity of jewelry or artwork, and by extension to that of marriage, I gave him a Certificate of Entry into History.
A rereading of the key moment in Sleeping Beauty's tale in contemporary jewelry has now been added to literature, cinema, opera, ballet, children's songs, visual arts, manga and comics, video games, and television series since the awarding of this certificate, and Dario Prinari is the (+), the complementary interpreter, implicitly invited to this performance so that the tale lives on in a new way.
For the benefit of contemporary jewelry, Dario Prinari has allowed me to disclose his name on this page as the (+) of the Brussels edition of Sleeping Beauty (+) performed on 28/04/2022, as well as revealing his name as the (+) in the category 'Contemporary Jewelry' that has been created in the 'Other works' section of the Wikipedia pages Sleeping Beauty and La Belle au bois dormant." (Lodie Kardouss)
Concept, designs and performance: Lodie Kardouss
Construction collaborator to Lodie Kardouss: Jean-Baptiste Pacucci
Special thanks to: Brussels Jewellery Week & Les Brucelles, Mad Home of Creators, Max Gielis, Pieter T'Jonck, David Nowers and Dario Prinari
Presented during the opening ceremony of the Brussels Jewellery Week in April 2022 at MAD Home of Creators
Review by Pieter T’Jonck click here
Photos © Fabrice Kada
