10 Years of ASTONISH - Anniversary Exhibition at the Villa Bengel in Idar-Oberstein

As part of the exhibition program “Idar-Oberstein schmückt sich,” Villa Bengel is presenting the anniversary exhibition “10 Years of ASTONISH”. Under the title “partycals”, the exhibition has already been on view at the International Handicrafts Fair (IHM) in Munich and at the 3rd Lisbon Contemporary Jewelry Biennial in 2026. Now it returns to the place where the collective’s story began.

ASTONISH was founded in 2016 by students at the Gemstone and Jewelry Campus of Trier University of Applied Sciences in Idar-Oberstein. Since then, the group—which has operated exclusively as a collective of female artists since 2017—has made a name for itself internationally in the field of contemporary designer jewelry through numerous exhibitions both in Germany and abroad.

A key feature of the collective’s practice is its continuous evolution: Since 2019, ASTONISH has dedicated itself to a new theme each year, from which the artists develop a collaborative series of works and an exhibition concept. This consistently gives rise to new perspectives on jewelry and its artistic possibilities.

To mark its tenth anniversary, ASTONISH is presenting a retrospective at Villa Bengel that brings together the collective’s evolution and its diverse artistic positions. A catalog accompanying the exhibition will be published and is available through the Jakob Bengel Foundation, Campus Edelstein und Schmuck, and the collective itself. 

The opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at Villa Bengel, Wilhelmstraße 44 in Idar-Oberstein. The event will feature opening remarks by Peter Wenzel, an introduction by Prof. Theo Smeets, and presentations by the participating artists. The event can also be viewed via livestream at the Instagram channel of the Jakob Bengel Foundation. 

For more information about the exhibition and ASTONISH, please visit the Webseite and the Instagram channel of the collektive. For more information about the foundation's program, please visit the website of the Industrial monument Jakob Bengel.