PRESS COMUNICATION FEBRUARY 24 2022 | FEBRUARY 24 2025 TRAUMART | ANTON SOKOLOV TRAUMA | ART | DREAM 24 febbraio – 21 marzo 2025 Inaugurazione 24 febbraio ore 17 Between The Twigs Via Santa Sofia 33, Milano Between The Twigs presents the exhibition TRAUMA | ART | DREAM by the Ukrainian artist-craftsman Anton Sokolov. Starting on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, February 24th, Anton brings in Milan his jewels, unique pieces made with materials collected during the war. And that is why his jewellery brand is called TRAUMART, an acronym formed by the German words TRAUM (in German, DREAM) and ART: jewels that tell the story of the pain and resentment triggered by the war, but also of the hope for a possible change. In Anton’s hands, bullet casings, missile fragments, brass, glass, and silver are transformed into rings, pendants, bracelets, each numbered with the day of the war in which the materials that compose it were recovered from the war rubble. Anton Sokolov was born in 1983 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, which was officially the USSR at the time, and inherited his passion for jewelry from his father, a goldsmith. After completing his studies, nevertheless, he followed in his mother's footsteps, graduating in dentistry and then opening a dental clinic. However, his dream of becoming a goldsmith never abandoned him: in 2015, after his mother's death, he melted his favorite silver chain into a bar to create a pendant - his first experience working with metal - and, since then, he has dedicated all his free time to studying jewelry-making techniques and putting into practice his new knowledges. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. From the first days of the war, Anton and his future wife Nastya organized a volunteer center, collecting donations and providing free assistance and medicines to the people of their city. In April 2022, Anton and Nastya got married: the event attracted media attention, and photos of the wedding of the two volunteer doctors in the ruins of war-torn Kharkiv went around the world. Shortly thereafter, Anton was seriously injured in a rocket attack in downtown Kharkiv and required surgery that was offered to him by a clinic in Munich. Although he did not want to leave Ukraine, Anton was forced to leave, but before leaving Kharkiv he took with him his goldsmith tools and the bullet casings that he had collected from the streets of his city with the aim of using them to make his jewelry. In Munich he had the opportunity to visit the Munich Jewellery Week, an event that constituted a fundamental turning point in his life: he chose not to validate his dentistry degree and to devote all his energies to studying the art of goldsmithing. In October 2023, during Milan Jewellery Week, Anton met Silvia Bianchi, also a goldsmith and owner of a small gallery of precious items, Between The Twigs, in a courtyard of old Milan-via Santa Sofia. A year later, he was invited by Silvia to participate in the 2024 edition of the Milan Jewellery Week, during which he received the Best Jewellery Art and Craft award from the Goldsmiths section of the Italian National Confederation of Crafts. Thanks to these successes, Silvia decided to invite him back to Italy and dedicate an exhibition to TRAUMART in her space. Today Anton lives in Berlin, where he has his small laboratory, and from February 24, 2025, he will be in Milan to present his creations, a tale of fears, severances, and achievements that today make him say "I'm still standing and nothing else matters!". ________________ 24.02.2022 | 24.02.2025 ANTON SOKOLOV TRAUMA | ART | TRAUM TRAUMA | ART | DREAM 24.02.2025 – 21.03.2025 opening 24.02.2025 5 pm Between The Twigs via Santa Sofia 33, Milano Monday – Friday 11 am 7pm https://www.betwigs.com https://www.instagram.com/traumart.ua/ Maria Chiara Salvanelli | Press Office & Communication Maria Chiara Salvanelli | E-mail mariachiara@salvanelli.it | Cell +39 333 4580190 Fabrizia de Luca | E-mail fabrizia@salvanelli.it | Cell +39 342 5060083