Resident from September 1, until December 1, 2025
The French-Dutch artist Julia Boix-Vives moves between the line of visual art and jewellery designing. She researches the tension between ornament and body, where the action, or the gesture, is the focus. From the century-old rituals of care, beauty and introspection she creates a poetic universe of jewellery, objects and performances.
Julia pulls inspiration from universal practices of the woman in front of her mirror. This moment of transformation and intimate dialogue translates to contemporary artwork, where everyday beauty attributes, such as make-up brushes and powder sponges, go in dialogue with precious metals, gemstones and historical objects. Her previous project Powder Memories, The Woman in Front of Her Mirror illustrates this search.
Julia sees the residency at DIVA as a chance to deepen her research. The Lunden collection, with her little toilet boxes, snuff boxes, mirrors and silver everyday objects, resonate strongly with her practices. She wants to update the symbolism of these historical objects and add a contemporary story by reinterpreting them into jewellery and performances.
Aside from this, Julia hopes to further develop her technical skills, especially hammering and metalworking. Working at DIVA gives her the opportunity to anchor movement and transformation, which are keywords in her work, further into shape and material.
Julia sees the interaction with audience, experts and fellow residents as an essential part of her stay. Through the future DIVA talk and the closing focus expo, she wants to take visitors along in her research and invite them to question their own ideas of beauty, identity and reflection. She experiences the residency as an important step in her artistic development, where the meeting between historical traditions and contemporary creation are central.
©michiel heffels
