Legnica International Jewellery Competition 2016

A city is one of the grandest, oldest and longest lasting achievements of human civilisation. Is it also the last? How great is the cities power of attraction if according to the sociological and demographic prognoses they will soon house over 80% of humanity? This tendency is ever increasing. What are these civilisation’s creatures, these (monstro)cities? What is the nature of their phenomenon?

A city is an autotelic structure, territorial-urban and social, an intellectual concept which lives its own live, but, at the same time, a creation as exact, practical and self-sufficient as any natural ecosystem. According to many, a city is defined by its residents and so it holds together all the man’s virtues and flaws. It is then an emanation of ambivalence and contradictions: good and evil, freedom and oppression, order and chaos, calculation and passion, power and weakness, beauty and ugliness, rationalism and spontaneity, community and egoism, safety and invigilation, riches and poverty, creativity and consumption, love and hate, comfort and burden, an individual and a crowd, etc.

A city is an element of controversial beauty and narcotic effects. The opposite of indolent peace and morbid boredom. A synonymous of haste and superficiality, countless impressions and illusions of a better life. A sum of its inhabitants’ individual thoughts, passions and desires, locked up in a reusable Pandora’s Box. A City - Mecca, El Dorado and Mordor in one. Man’s Heaven and Hell.

Date and Place of the exhibition: 26th April - 5th June 2016
Opening ceremony: 21st May 2016 Exhibition space: The Gallery of Art in Legnica, Plac Katedralny 1

The Organizers plan to present the exhibition in chosen cities in Poland and abroad.


The Jury:
The Jury will meet on 5-6 April 2016.
The Organizers invited to the Jury: Timothy Carson (Great Britain), Sławomir Fijałkowski (Poland), Melanie Isverding (Germany), Otto Künzli (Switzerland/Germany), Katarzyna Rzehak (Poland).
The artist’s interpretation of the theme of the competition and using silver will be the basic criterion for the Jury to qualify works for the exhibition and award prizes.
The submitted works may be accompanied by a short commentary (one sentence) which will be included in the catalogue.
The Jury’s decisions are final and cannot be challenged in the court of law.
The list of the classified persons will be publish at Festival’s site till 22nd April 2016

Awards and Prizes:
Grand Prix: 10.000 PLN (c.a  2300 euro)* + 1 kg of silver II
2nd Award: 5.000 PLN (c.a 1150 euro)* + 1 kg of silver III.
Award of the Mayor of the City of Legnica: 3.000 PLN (c.a 690 euro)*  + 1 kg of silver IV.
Award of the Gallery of Art in Legnica: solo exhibition with catalogue worth 1000 euro V.
The Organizers’ Special Award for creative courage, uncompromising attitude, innovation or sense of humour: statuette “Silver Spur” + 1 kg of silver 

The Jury reserves the right to distribute the prizes in a manner different than specified above.
It has become the competition’s tradition that the winners of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Prize donate the prize-winning work (one work) to the Organizer ,the Gallery of Art in Legnicaa, to augment its Legnica International Collection of Contemporary Jewellery.

Prizes beyond the competence of the Jury Inhorgenta Munich Award:
free stand at INHORGENTA MUNICH in 2017 worth 2000 euro
The Joachim Sokólski Award established by the Polish Modern Art Foundation 1 kg of silver
Polish Jewellery Award  free stand at Summer Trade Fair JUBINALE in Cracow in 2017
Polish Jewellery Award advertisement in PB catalogue in 2017
Hefra Company Award  prize gift Honorable mention of the Goldsmithing Artists` Association statuette and diploma
Honorable mention of the Director of the Gallery of Art in Legnica diploma

In this category the choice of the prize-winner is made by the founders of the award or upon their permission by the Jury.

Publications:
The exhibition will be accompanied by an invitation, poster and a catalogue presenting works selected by the jury to the main exhibition.
Every artist whose works are selected by the jury to the main exhibition will receive one copy of the catalogue free of charge.
The Organizers reserve the right to publish photos of works free of charge in publications of the Gallery of Art, press, television and other forms of visual documentation for promotional purposes.

Final Provisions:
The exhibition of selected works will be accompanied by the presentation of works of the Jurors.
The Organizers are liable for submitted works from the time of receiving them until they are returned to the artist in person at the gallery or dispatched via mail or shipping company - in case of losing the package post or courier company is responsible according to its rules.
In the case of any damage or loss the object while in the Organizer’s care or during the exhibition, the Organizers will cover the cost of its restoration.
  

The competition is open to all artists from Poland and abroad.
There are no restrictions as to the number of works submitted by a participant, provided that: -  the copyright is with the artist,  -  the works are submitted under the artist’s name, all the works submitted by the artist can be contained within a case measuring 35 x 35 x 25 cm; by the Organizer’s earlier permission, the arrangements can be made to accept objects of dimensions exceeding those specified above.
The artist declaring his or her participation in the competition is obliged to: send the submitted works in an appropriate and secure packaging that will protect the objects from damage and can be reused for returning them to the artist, accompanied by a properly filled-in invoice and application form by the deadline of 25th March 2016 (the deadline concerns the actual arrival of the work, not the postmark). Note: Participants from outside UE are asked to take into consideration additional time (ca. 5 days) on the custom formalities for receiving works.
The packages will be opened by a commission.
The works not qualified for the exhibition will be returned by the end of September 2016 according to the author`s instructions provided by the artist on the application form.
Since the aim of the exhibition is to be exposed in other cities, the selected works will remain under the Organizers disposal till July 2017, and then they will be send back to the participants till the end of August 201 together with documentation of the work`s presentation.

The aim of the exhibition is to present the most interesting accomplishments of contemporary jewellery art. The submitted works should be jewellery in the broad sense of the term, display creativity as well as high standards of design and execution. The Organizers set no restrictions as to the materials and techniques employed but to honour the competition’s over 30-yearlong tradition, the inclusion of silver in the work is expected.