At first glance, 'bei mir' appears to be a long-range project for the 
realization of pieces of jewellery, specifically, brooches. Their form derives 
from the floorplans of the homes of the owners and tenants who will commission 
the brooches. Yet an exhibition at the end of the project will not display the 
jewellery itself, but documentary material on the initial point of departure: 
views of the homes and portraits of the owners (of both the homes and the 
brooches). The exhibition neither focuses on elevating a piece of jewellery to 
a work of art, nor on the production of it (as a commissioned work). Instead, 
the ornamental pieces serve as "links" uniting diverse cultural patterns, 
orders, understandings, symbolizations and contexts. 'bei mir' is hence the 
title of a process initiated by Wolfgang Temmel in which art and jewellery as 
well as the social position of individuals are the issue. Moreover, it is a 
form of exposing this relationship: the divestment of a way of life in an 
object which exemplarily involves a gesture of self-display and portrayal.

In this project, the jewellery's form exists prior to its creation; it cannot 
be traced to an aesthetic concept, a subjective perception or a particular 
artistic strategy: indeed, the form is a metaphor for a different (social) 
system, it goes beyond art and the ornamental context and reveals 
(architectonic) orders. It symbolically emphasizes systems of order to which 
the wearer (and commissioner) is subject, which he/she has fashioned for 
him/herself, in which he/she moves and is at home, i.e. "bei sich ". Each 
piece of jewellery refers to this state of being "bei sich".

Accordingly, the price of each brooch is not based on categories of artistic 
esteem or dictates of the art market. Made on the scale of 1 : 400, the price 
is calculated on the average monthly rent of each home, and thus redirects 
attention from the system of art to the system of society. It exemplarily 
marks jewellery's domain: as a component of social orders through which the 
subject situates himself in society or is situated by others. Jewellery is an 
object of classification and projections, of desires representation. 'bei mir' 
brings these aspects together and as jewellery signalizes their never-ending 
presence.<br>
<br>
Reinhard Braun