The haunting resurrection of beauty by CELSIUS 273
After nearly five years of deliberate quiet, Lithuanian designer and conceptual jewelry artist Gerda Liudvinavičiūtė, founder of the brand CELSIUS 273, returns with a powerful new collection. Titled ARCHIV°, this body of work does not merely mark a continuation—it detonates a new chapter. It is a visceral, unapologetic exploration of material afterlife: an aesthetic rebellion forged from silver scraps and creative silence.
From Silence to a New Syntax of Form
For six years, Liudvinavičiūtė immersed herself in academia—design research and teaching—contemplating the role of the object, the death of utility, and the urgency to create in a world that often demands otherwise. Though jewelry retreated to the background, it never disappeared. It waited, patiently smoldering beneath the surface.
“I questioned the very essence of the designer’s role today,” she explains. “What does it mean to create when everything already exists? What happens to beauty when the object dies?”
With a new lens shaped by emotional introspection and intellectual rigor, Liudvinavičiūtė returned to her metalwork bench. There, she reengaged with fire, form, and raw instinct.
Anti-Glamour, Anti-Design: The Birth of ARCHIV°
ARCHIV° is an experimental jewelry collection born not from planning, but from surrender. There were no sketches. No structured concepts. Only intuition, metal, and fire.
In her studio—more laboratory than atelier—the artist allowed randomness to rule. She scattered fragments: tarnished chains, slivers of past works, silver dust. What emerged were sculptural pieces that seemed less made than discovered. The human hand became secondary, a mere witness to the process.
“This collection is about value after death—about brokenness, rejection, discard,” Liudvinavičiūtė says. “Deconstruction. Brutalism. An aesthetic that speaks in the language of what we usually throw away.”
From rings bent into shape with minimal interference to pendants that echo accidental ruins, ARCHIV° is a collection of post-objects: imperfect, unapologetic, and alive.
The Sacred Space of Creation
This act of silent rebellion took place in a modest studio nestled within the Bernardinai Monastery in Vilnius’ Old Town. The historical weight of the space, once filled with prayer, now resonates with molten metal and creative defiance.
“I call it my creative cell,” Gerda reflects. “Through the window, I can see St. Anne’s Church. The atmosphere is quiet, yet charged—perfect for a project like this.”
CELSIUS 273: A Brutalist Legacy
Since 2016, CELSIUS 273 has been more than a brand—it has been an architecture of ideas. Rooted in the textures of urban life and the ideology of brutalism, Liudvinavičiūtė’s work has traveled far beyond Lithuania, gracing galleries and concept stores in Japan, Italy, Nepal, and France. It lives in the collections of institutions like the MO Museum and even the Guggenheim. In 2018, a piece was gifted to Pope Francis during his visit to Lithuania.
Her accolades include a Silver A’ Design Award, recognition from GIT’s World Jewelry Design Awards, and multiple national Good Design prizes. Yet with ARCHIV°, she enters uncharted territory—one defined not by prestige, but by purity of impulse.
Photography as Post-Human Dialogue
To visually translate the philosophical backbone of ARCHIV°, Liudvinavičiūtė collaborated with photographer Monika Penkutė, whose surreal aesthetic helped shape the eerie intimacy of the campaign.
The visuals flirt with post-anthropocenic themes—the tension between human and non-human, the uncanny as familiar. The model becomes more than human; the surfaces become symbolic terrain: dried beetles, wet asphalt, lava, tar-like water. A Lovecraftian undercurrent pulses through the mise-en-scène.
“We wanted the imagery to feel like an echo of something ancient and alien,” she says. “Not fantasy, but a reconfiguration of the real.”
A Rebellion in Slow Motion
More than a collection, ARCHIV° is a statement. It challenges conventional notions of value, design, authorship—even beauty. In its quiet brutality, it asks: What remains when everything is gone?
For those who seek objects with story, scars, and soul, ARCHIV° is an invitation. A slow riot. A whisper from the margins.
Follow the silent riot:
Instagram: @celsius273_studio
Website: www.celsius273.com
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