On a warm Berlin evening, the kind where the golden hour seems to stretch indefinitely, Panconesi turned Berlin Mitte’s Rosegarden into a living, breathing archive. Hidden behind a quiet courtyard framed by a historic red-brick building, a majestic fountain and lush greenery, the event was not presented as a retrospective, but as an intimate glimpse into the brand’s visual evolution.
For creative director Marco Panconesi, jewellery has never been solely about decoration. Instead, each piece they create acts as “a dynamic extension of the body,” – a philosophy that came to life the moment guests stepped into the courtyard.
The brand’s creations are designed not simply to sit on the body but to interact with it, reshaping familiar forms through movement and proportion. You could see it in hoops that traced the shape of the ear to become cuffs, rings that distorted regular shapes and sculptural necklaces that framed the collarbone – each defined by inflated hollow forms and soft, tactile metals. Set against the backdrop of Rosegarden’s centuries-old trees and refined florals designs inside the space, the jewellery felt less like cold accessory design and more like organic fragments of nature itself.
The evening also proved that the Panconesi universe reaches far beyond the earlobe or the wrist. A striking tablescape showed how the brand aesthetic extends into the home, with vessels, candleholders, plates and objets rooted in the jewelllery’s sculptural language. One standout piece was a tall, metallic vase holding a burst of deep orange orchids; its silver surface was completely pierced with fine, thin pins tipped with multi-coloured stones, which transformed the vase into a spiked sculpture. It perfectly illustrated a new chapter for the brand: one where decoration is no longer confined to the body, but free to adorn an entire room.
This notion of beautiful excess was the exhibition’s pulse. The photography presented perfectly captured the brand’s signature approach: ears enveloped in constellations of gold hoops, dangling crystal clusters, and fluid, looping silver wires that spiral out into the air. Rather than showcasing isolated jewellery, these visuals highlighted the art of the stack and accumulation, a styling trick core to the universe of Panconesi. Why should I wear one ring when I can build a moving sculpture across my hand?
This energy culminated in Facets, a 35mm film directed by Jordan Robson projecting at the center of the exhibition. Featuring a cast of nine distinct cultural icons (Michèle Lamy, Anna Dello Russo, Malick Bodian, Jojo Legessa, Ambrosia Fortuna, Ceval, Kat Qiu, Izzy Spears and Inge Grognard) the film is a masterclass in identity through portraits. Through Robson’s lens, Panconesi’s jewelelry becomes a transformative tool, shifting with each character and illustrating that these pieces resist rigid categories of gender, age, or status. In addition, the exhibition mapped out the brand’s rich history with various photographers and image-makers, filling the walls with past campaigns shot by Carlijn Jacobs, Ilya Lipkin, Lea Colombo, Thomas Cristiani, Thue Nørgaard, Vincent Ferrané and Arnaud Lajeunie.
As night fell over the courtyard, the visual turned into sound. German musician Finn Ronsdorf took to the space, performing original tracks from his EP Odes. It wasn’t background entertainment; Ronsdorf’s raw, emotionally exposed performance felt like an auditory mirror to the jewellery surrounding him: very fragile and soft one moment, incredibly bold and powerful the next.
Text GIULIO POLVERIGiANI
