Hollow goose eggs, natural sponges, packaging and balloons with a smiley face - shoe soles, scientific measuring instruments and his mother's gallstones - the repertoire of objects turned into jewelry knows no bounds for Norwegian artist Sigurd Bronger. Artful suspension mechanisms make them wearable.
The accuracy of the brass and gold mechanisms is reminiscent of scientific instruments and, like these, Bronger's objects fit perfectly in the specially made wooden boxes. He himself does not refer to his works as jewelry, nor as brooches, finger or necklaces, but simply describes them as 'wearable objects'. The artistic carrying devices objectify the reception of the objects, lift them out of their everyday meaning and enable us to view them aesthetically and discover a completely unexpected beauty. Objects are existing phenomena of the material world to which our perception is directed. We want to recognize what we see. And this is precisely where Bronger comes in.
Necklace "Camay", 2005, Camay soap (hotel size), chrome-plated silver, cotton cord. 4.0 x 3.7 x 1.2 cm. The New Collection - The Design Museum
He uses objects for his jewelry that we would otherwise not pick up and certainly not attach to our clothing as a decorative element. Once you have realized what it is actually about, the first moment of shock of recognition at the sole of the shoe or the camel to be the main protagonist of a brooch dissolves charmingly into a wink, which is so characteristic of some of Bronger's works. Thanks to his curiosity and his different way of looking at things, our own world of things becomes many times larger - the ball from the computer mouse becomes a ring - the precious diamond in the medical blister packaging becomes a brooch, whereby it is the disposable packaging that catches the eye rather than the gemstone.
Born in Norway's capital Oslo in 1957, Sigurd Bronger chose the Dutch technical school for watchmakers and goldsmiths in Schonhooven in 1975 after a year at the Oslo vocational school specializing in jewelry. Here he graduated in 1979. He then worked as an engraver at Koninklijke Fabrieken Posthumus in Amsterdam, which was founded in 1920. In 1983 he returned to Oslo, where he still lives and works today.
Balloon" brooch, 2001, balloon, chrome-plated brass, steel. 15 x 5.1 x 24 cm (balloon dimensions). Private collection
In 2009, Die Neue Sammlung invited Sigurd Bronger to give a lecture on his work in the "All about me" series. Two years later, the museum added the work "Camay Necklace" from 2005 to its collections. It is the only work by Bronger in a German museum, while museums and private collections in the Netherlands, America and Asia greatly appreciate his art and he was awarded the Bavarian State Prize in 2016 for his work "Carrying device for a Nautilus". The lenders from Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Thailand and the USA are correspondingly international.
Die Neue Sammlung is honored to present Sigurd Bronger's first solo exhibition in a museum outside Norway, whose artistic language is unique not only in Norway, but worldwide. Around 150 works are on display in the exhibition.
March 2 to June 2, 2024
www.pinakothek-der-moderne.de
