Jugendstil as total work of art - discover Bad Nauheim's handicraft and industrial heritage!
Living history! Bad Nauheim celebrates its cultural heritage during the Jugendstil Festival in the largest connected construction of Jugendstil in Europe. Jugendstil lovers will enjoy themselves strolling through the handcraft market where more than 60 selected restorer and artists expose the large hand-made repertoire from that time. It is a pleasure to take a look over the conservator´s shoulder and admire all the examples of stucco-, ceramic-, mosaic-, glass-, wood-, sewing- and jewel works. Moreover many events such as music performances, fashion shows, exhibitions and guided tours will take place during the whole festival.

Based around the innovative jewellery designs of members of the Darmstadt Artists´ Colony-Peter Behrens, Rudolf Bosselt, Paul Bürck, Hans Christiansen, Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Ludwig Habich, Patriz Huber and Joseph Maria Olbrich-a unique exhibition on European jewellery history from around 1900 will once more take place in autumn 2011. It will be held in the exhibition rooms of the Museum Künstlerkolonie (Darmstadt Artists´ Colony), housed in impressive Jugendstil-era buildings. Highly valued pieces of jewellery by René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, Jan Eisenloeffel and Fabergé present a detailed overview of the outstanding creativity these artists expressed through the Jugendstil.

As well as including the Museum Künstlerkolonie´s finest jewellery, the exhibition displays a selection of particularly exquisite objects from the outstanding Jugendstil jewellery collection in the Hessisches Landesmuseum. This museum´s inventory is based on the collection of the Dutch court jeweller Karel A. Citroen (b. 1922). On display are works by the famous Parisian jewellers, goldsmiths and enamellers René Lalique and Georges Fouquet as well as André-Fernand Thesmar and Lucien Gaillard. Lalique sparked a revolution in the field of jewellery design while inspiring Viennese jewellery production at the turn of the century, which neverthless developed in a different direction. Josef Hoffmann´s stricter designs are a statement that the artistic composition and handworked quality of a piece of jewellery is more important than its value in raw materials.

It is difficult to believe that a piece of architecture that was acclaimed in its period, barely more than a century ago, and built with a masterly savoir faire out of the finest quality materials, should be revealed to be so fragile. Its history could become the plot of a modern fable.

This exhibition, which the Maison Autrique is dedicating to Victor Horta, proposes following or retracing the key moments of a piece of architecture which has long since disappeared. This initiative is another push in the movement to recover Art Nouveau history, a movement that has been of the highest importance in the Brussels region for several years.

"Victor Horta - A Lost World", open to the public until 31 December 2011, fulfils expectations: the pieces, works and films presented are simply extraordinary. The exhibition is structured around three themes: projects which were never undertaken (such as the Congo Pavilion), those that destiny has done away with (l´Innovation department store, for example) and those which humans have destroyed (the Maison du Peuple is the most iconic example).

These vanished projects come alive again at the Maison Autrique in different ways: Horta´s plans and sketches, impressive remains (which you can even touch), reconstructions and some period film pieces. The whole forms a highly coherent, varied exhibition.