Openingsspeech ( part 1 and 2, by Liesbeth den Besten)

(Part 1)

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome. Welcome today in Amsterdam on the occasion of the prize giving ceremony of the twelfth Françoise van den Bosch Prize to Warwick Freeman. Welcome, especially to Warwick Freeman and Natalie who came a long way just to collect an unsealed envelope.

Today the language will be English for obvious reasons. First of all I would like to ask you to check if your cellular phones are switched of.

I would like to amplify the programme of this afternoon. After my short introduction His Excellency Mister David Payton, the ambassador of New Zealand will say a few words. Than Mrs. Ellen Maurer, Frau Doctor to be sure, will give a lecture about the jewellery collection of the Danner Stiftung in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. The Pinakothek der Moderne, the State Museum of Art, Architecture and Design of Bavaria, is a wonderful new museum that has recently opened its doors in Munich. Mrs Maurer is curator of the design collection and in charge of the jewellery of the Danner Stiftung. Her lecture will be the first Françoise van den Bosch lecture. The beginning – as we hope – of a long line of lectures that will be given at the occasion of the prize giving ceremony, every two years.

After this lecture our member of the board Rob Koudijs, who was the chairman of the jury, will read the jury report.

Than I will hand over the Prize to Warwick Freeman and he will say a few words.

But first for those of you who don’t know much about our foundation, I will explain our objectives in short. Françoise van den Bosch was a talented Dutch jewellery designer, who died suddenly at the age of 33. This was in 1977. A few years later, in 1980, friends and relatives of Françoise succeeded in the founding of the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation. The aim of the foundation was to stimulate jewellery design. The Prize was one of the instruments that could help to fulfil this objective. Well, since 1980 the prize has been awarded to a respectful list of artists and a respectful list of exhibitions and books was the result. In 1984 the Françoise van den Bosch Prize was awarded for the first time to a foreigner, Pierre Degen from London. And in 2002 the jury decided to give the prize to an artist who is living on the other side of the world.
This broadening of perspectives is exhausting for all people involved, but also a logical step forward in the evolution of our foundation.
A few years ago the foundation decided to do something for young talented jewellery designers too. So besides the Prize which is awarded every two years to an established artist, every other year the foundation acquires a few pieces of jewellery by young talented artists. Since 1997 we acquired jewellery of Dutch, German and Australian jewellery designers. Our collection is in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and can also be seen on our website.
As you probably all know a lot of museums in Holland are partially closed or moved to temporary locations. Under these conditions, the position of jewellery is tough. However if you like to see a fine collection of the work of Françoise van den Bosch, you can to travel to Apeldoorn, in the east of the country. The Apeldoorns Museum, which is also accommodated in a temporary building, has made a new jewellery presentation, showing more then twenty pieces of Françoise, and also work of Onno Boekhoudt, Ruudt Peters and others.

As far as I know the Francoise van den Bosch Prize is unique in the world. Of course there are the Herbert Hofmann Prizes in Munich Germany, which are awarded every year to three artists in the Schmuck exhibition, and the Marzee Prize in Nijmegen which is awarded every year to an artist of the Marzee Gallery. Like the Françoise van den Bosch Prize they are all awarded to international jewellery designers. But the Françoise van den Bosch Prize however is special, because an independent jury can decide whatever they want, there are no restrictions at all unless it is quality, appeal and content.

After this short explanation I would like to invite Mr. David Payton, the ambassador of New Zealand to come forward.

Mr. David Payton…

(Part two)

Dear Warwick,

There you are finally, after all those e-mails. First you could not believe it. We are fortunate to have you here in the Netherlands. It is the third time now that you have an exhibition in Amsterdam, the first one was in 1990, the last one was four years ago. Still, I think your work is quite unknown – I really hope that this exhibition, the awarding of the Françoise van den Bosch Prize and the lecture that you will give on Monday at the Rietveld Academy, will change this situation. By the way, everyone who interested in this lecture is welcome.
Your work reveals a world that is unknown to us, Europeans. It is true, we can ‘read’ your brooches like characters, or like words in a sentence. Your exhibition is called ‘sentences’. But your work has many layers, it is also embedded in your natural surroundings and in your culture, the culture of new Zealand, or should I say Aotearoa which is the Maori name for New Zealand. This culture is a mixture of colonial, ‘European’, Pacific and Maori elements.
Like many of your awarded predecessors did, you are working hard to realize a book and an exhibition, in cooperation with the art historian Damian Skinner. For me, it is just amazing every time again to see how it works: being awarded with a prize. It always creates a lot of extra work for the awarded artist.
The theme of your exhibition will be cross-cultural relations in your jewellery and even cultural identity and appropriation, which may be interpreted - in a very simple way - as ‘cultural colonisation’ or the borrowing of materials like bone or shell, and images found in the culture you’re living in. A very interesting theme, and a topical subject in these days.
Next year your exhibition will be installed in the Tropen Museum here in Amsterdam, afterwards it will travel to Pforzheim. We are looking forward to this event.
But now at this moment I am proud to present to you the Françoise van den Bosch Prize 2002.