Kiko Gianocca

“I like to think that my jewellery is about change. Changing and transforming objects, things that are around me every day catch my attention and I try to manipulate the way we look at them. I attempt to give them a new life and identity, a new way to be perceived, appropriated and used. (…) I like the notion that a piece of jewellery stands between the body (the self) and the world, representing a sort of link between the inner and the outer. As such they do not only envelope and protect the wearer but also they have the capacity to reach inside and move things, thoughts and feelings.” Kiko Gianocca, in Current Obsession

Born in Bellinzona in 1974, Graziano (Kiko) Gianocca studied gold and silversmithing at the Art Institute CFP in Florence, graduating with a bachelor in fine arts in 1999. From 2000–2001 he studied in the invited student program at the Escola Massana in Barcelona. From 2003 to 2008 Kiko lived in Melbourne, where he completed his master degree at RMIT University (2003-2004) and where he also taught from 2004 until 2007. In 2006 he won the Emerging Artists Grant from the Australian Government. After returning to Switzerland in 2008 he won the Swiss De­sign Prize and in 2014 he won the Mari Fu­naki Award for Contemporary Jewellery. His work has been exhibited around the world and collected by Australian National Gal­leries in Melbourne, Brisbane & Adelaide, as well as at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn (Netherlands) and MUDAC in Lausanne. Since 2015 he is one of the ideators and cura­tors of Artificio, the project devoted to value the work of designers in Ticino.