RELIC ROSÉ. Villa De Bondt, Gent. June 2006

The installation Relic Rosé brings together works previously displayed in an historic museum context into the domestic space of a Belgian Art Deco Villa. Ossarium Rosé pieces which have been previously displayed as autonomous, contemplative artefacts are now made functional to become wearable objects, jewellery, newly titled Relic Rosé. The disturbing niceness of the velvety surface that covers the bone-like Relic Rosé objects mimics the morbidity of flesh or skin. The series Body Supports are also part of the display, referring to braces, harnesses and straps designed to support, heal, protect and extend the functioning of the fragile body - emotional prostheses for the contemporary individual.
Contradictory feelings of attraction and rejection and the play between distance/closeness to the body are expressed through all works: The Relic Rosé pieces are accompained by Foreign Body pieces and Body Supports. The double life of this project, as installation and wearable artefact, becomes a statement.
Christoph Zellweger talks about his investigation at Orthopaedica Belgica, International Congress Gent, June 2006 under the conference theme ART & ORTHOPAEDICS.


RELIC ROSÉ. Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam. April 2007

This solo exhibition in the context of an established contemporary jewellery gallery brings the 'art-objects' of the installation at the Natural History Museum in Lisbon back to the field of what is traditionally understood as 'applied arts'. This shift transforms the artefacts of Ossarium Rosé into luxurious contemporary relics. The exhibition Relic Rosé references historical jewellery through the use of classic typologies like sautoirs, colliers-de-chien and lavishly decorated necklaces and renewed the debate between past and present, while pushing the idea that body parts can become ornaments themselves.
The tension/dialogue between autonomous and wearable objects becomes present in the exhibition. This duality is further enhanced by the presentation of the book, which documents the former installations and therefore offers additional layers of reading on the otherwise de-contextualized pieces in the specialised gallery.

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