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2025
Paths and Signposts

What shows us the way? What makes us hesitate, turn back, or take new paths?

Paths and Signposts was an invitation to reflect on decisions, directions, and the spaces in between. Between jewelry and sound, installation and conversation, spaces were created – for encounter, remembrance, and orientation.

From July 25th to August 15th, 2025, the Helmut Hable Gallery in Straden was transformed into a vibrant place of cultural participation.

International and local artists, children and visitors of all generations collaborated to create this multifaceted project.

Curator's text

The exhibition explores the tension between the location "ZwischenLand" (In-Between Land) and the year's theme, "Paths and Signposts." At its heart are the reactions of the invited artists, whose works and concepts reveal personal and artistic decision-making processes: the space between inspiration, life experience, and chosen paths. This in-between space allows for many simultaneous, even reversible, narratives and constantly opens up new directions.

The exhibition aims to foster a shared reflection on decisions and the connection between past, present, and future—especially in a time that often boils down to a fleeting "here and now." The works on display tell of formative moments, childhood memories, detours, conscious non-decisions, returns to abandoned paths, trust in dreams, productive error, and nature as a teacher. From this emerges a common thread of profound, playful lightness, a quality also characteristic of contemporary jewelry art.

A communal and cheerful conclusion is provided by the "Magic Forest," a project by students of the Straden secondary school, created from discarded materials and celebrating the power of collective creation. Other works explore the spaces between disciplines, forms of perception, and architectural levels, for example, through photography as a guide in everyday life.

Upstairs, historical prints of the 18th-century "Grand Tour" enter into dialogue with contemporary perspectives that understand journeys as educational, experiential, and creative processes. Printmaking is presented here as a craft practice characterized by great freedom and a close connection to goldsmithing.

In this way, diverse voices merge into a unified sound that transcends disciplinary boundaries. This openness continues in the exhibition's soundtrack, which gathers words and sounds from many languages – born from the simple question: "What were your guiding lights?" The answer remains open, playful, and audible in the wind.

Artists

jewellery

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Robeir Barsoum

I didn't choose jewelry. It chose me.
When I was fifteen, my father gave me the keys to our family's jewelry safe. That quiet moment changed the course of my life. I gained not only access to gold and precious stones, but also trust, a legacy, and responsibility. That moment ignited a fire within me that has never gone out.
I'm not just a jeweler. I'm a storyteller. Every piece I create carries something real within it: a memory, a symbol, a message meant to stand the test of time. I believe that jewelry isn't just decoration, it's identity. It's passed down, worn close to the heart, and imbued with meaning.
My work is shaped by my heritage, based on craftsmanship, and driven by the need to create something lasting in a constantly changing world. I design with depth and always ask myself: What story will this piece tell when I'm no longer here?
Jewelry is my voice. And through it, I speak not only to today, but also to the next generation.

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    Noah Layr 

    The Graz-based artist Noah Layr has spent years exploring historical metal casting techniques, the art of Urushi lacquer, and the subtle colonization of plants in jewelry.
    His sculptural pieces translate natural structures into wearable miniatures, blending narrative symbolism with questions of material value, contemporary relevance, and the boundaries of adornment. www.noahlayr.com

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    Lilian Mattuschka

    She moves between sculpture and jewelry, merging artisanal precision with conceptual inquiry.
    Her work continuously explores the boundaries of wearability, questioning what adornment can be.
    Through her wooden and body-related sculptures, she creates poetic spaces—between object and body, jewelry and performance, presence and movement.

    www.lilianmattuschka.com

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      Daria Olejniczak 

      Daria Olejniczak is a jewelry artist and lighting designer.

      In her artistic practice, she seeks a state of flow—that deep immersion in an activity where everything else fades into the background. Her works emerge from a meditative, repetitive engagement with small objects, which she deconstructs and restructures in a slow, intuitive process.

      dariaolejniczak.com

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        Flora Vagí 

        Hungarian artist Flóra Vági works with wood, paper, and found objects, transforming humble materials into quiet, evocative forms.
        Her fragmented objects resemble “whispered stories” — delicate traces that speak of both transience and permanence.
        Rooted in a deep sensitivity to material and form, 
        each piece invites reflection, asking us to listen to what is fragile, what is fading, and what remains.

        www.floravagi.net

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          Andrea Auer 

          transforms everyday materials—used, broken, discarded—into individual, poetic pieces of jewelry. Things that are often overlooked or considered worthless are given new meaning and dignity.
          With a keen sense for material and form, she creates small treasures from found objects that tell stories.
          Since 2002, she has been designing jewelry under her label andreaauer that surprises and touches.

          www.andreaauer.at

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            Shahd Essam 

            I design jewelry as a dialogue between architecture and tradition, memory and material, body and object.
            With roots in architecture and traditional art, I explore the emotional impact of jewelry on the body – artisanal techniques combine with modern technology to create timeless forms with contemporary expression.
            Curiosity drives me to constantly discover new materials and meanings that link identity, time, and history.

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              Chiara Longari 

              Milan-born artist Chiara Longari combines her background in scenography with a mastery of fine metal techniques to create conceptual, tactile jewelry and objects.
              Her work captures urban atmospheres and fleeting fragments of nature, transforming them into poetic, wearable compositions that invite reflection and touch. Each piece is a dialogue between structure and emotion, precision and spontaneity. www.kunstwirtschaft.at

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                Fadwa Nayef 

                My jewelry preserves stories – of origin, change, resistance and renewal.
                As a Palestinian designer, I use traditional techniques such as filigree work to keep the past alive and reflect the present.
                Each piece is handcrafted – with patience, care, and the awareness that metal carries memories.

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                  Izabella Petrut 

                  I create jewelry as a medium for reflection and transformation, connecting personal memories with social and philosophical narratives. Each piece invites wearers to explore identity, time, and the emotional presence of objects on the body.

                  izabellapetrut.com

                    Painting and graphic art
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                    Helmut Hable

                    Helmut Hable translates the volcanic landscape of southeast Styria into expressive paintings and graphics. Layers and textures form a vocabulary that oscillates between figurative narrative and abstract tracing. helmuthable.com

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                      Alois Krug

                      Alois Krug develops highly detailed etchings in which chaos and order collide in dense networks of lines.

                        Installation
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                        Zauberwald

                        Using discarded materials, students from the Straden secondary school, under the guidance of Doris Maninger, are creating sculptural trees that combine to form a walk-through forest. The project's outcome is not just a single point in space, but an entire landscape to immerse oneself in and contemplate.

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                          Giorgio Orbi

                          In his multidisciplinary practice, he deals with the transformation of landscape and the development of artistic genres – as a reflection of the collective aesthetic and moral ideas of a time.

                          Moving images, sculpture, photography, sound, writing and installations made from organic and inorganic elements – these are the means by which he expresses his imagination.

                          Photo – Courtesy of Radio Raheem

                            Culinary

                            Ruth und Christoph Mandl

                            Saziani Stubn

                            Helmut Hable translates the volcanic landscape of southeast Styria into expressive paintings and graphics. Layers and textures form a vocabulary that oscillates between figurative narrative and abstract tracing. helmuthable.com

                              Music, theatre and photography
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                              Alena Baich

                              Helmut Hable translates the volcanic landscape of southeast Styria into expressive paintings and graphics. Layers and textures form a vocabulary that oscillates between figurative narrative and abstract tracing. helmuthable.com

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                                Esad Halilovic

                                Helmut Hable translates the volcanic landscape of southeast Styria into expressive paintings and graphics. Layers and textures form a vocabulary that oscillates between figurative narrative and abstract tracing. helmuthable.com

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                                  Amidou & Jorossin

                                  Helmut Hable translates the volcanic landscape of southeast Styria into expressive paintings and graphics. Layers and textures form a vocabulary that oscillates between figurative narrative and abstract tracing. helmuthable.com

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                                    Andrea Zahlbruckner-Jaufer

                                    "Silent, vast, solitude is not alien, but an embrace with being..."

                                    Jewelry artist and photographer

                                    www.kunstwirtschaft

                                      painting and graphic art
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                                      Curator Team

                                      Maurizio Alampi

                                      Sara Chinello

                                      Helmut und Lydia Hable

                                      Doris Maninger

                                      Photo credits: Elena Azzalini, Federico Cavicchioli, Robert Paul, Andrea Zahlbruckner..........

                                        painting and graphic art

                                        Workshops

                                        Daria Olejniczak

                                        27 July from 4 pm to 8 pm
                                        Helmut Hable Gallery
                                        Wieden-Klausen 47, 8345 Straden

                                        NoahWS
                                        Cristina d’Alberto and Doris Maninger

                                        Part 1
                                        August 2nd from 9 am to 5 pm

                                        Studio 14

                                        Deutsch-Goritz 14

                                         

                                         

                                        AlenaWS.avif
                                        Cristina d'Alberto and Doris Maninger

                                        Part 2

                                        August 9th from 9am to 12pm

                                        Helmut Hable Gallery

                                        Wieden Straden 47, 8345 Straden

                                         

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                                        Noah Layr

                                        August 1st from 1 pm to 7 pm

                                        Helmut Hable Gallery

                                        Wieden Straden 47, 8345 Straden

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                                        Alena Baich

                                        August 4 from 2 pm to 8 pm

                                        Helmut Hable Gallery

                                        Wieden Straden 47, 8345 Straden

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                                        Photo gallery

                                        We say thank you

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