Legnica International Jewellery Competition 2018

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 almost 40-year-long tradition, the inclusion of silver in the work is expected.


This year's topic is Ilussion
It is not certain which was first: a man or an illusion? One can imagine life without a man, but is life without illusions still conceivable? Perhaps we would not exist if it was not for an illusion but ultimately, we live with it in an inseparable tangle like jing and yang.
It is impossible to do without it in everyday reality. It is widely used for various purposes. Most often as a means, an instrument, a method to surprise, manipulate, deceive, cheat, and finally achieve the intended effect, a specific goal. Not necessarily a morally reprehensible one.

Illusion can be defined in various ways, located in different orders, from physical and aesthetic to psychosocial and political. Although it apparently originates from the neutral world of optics, in fact it seems to be that fleeting and ambivalent filter, lens, stained glass between the sacred and the profane, the unconscious cause of our triumphs and disasters, the source of beauty and nightmare, pleasure and pain, truth and falsehood, love and solitude. In a word - a remedy for all evil, but often with side effects.
Illusion is a paradox in which a phenomenon - illusory, false and fictitious by its very nature - serves to describe actual reality, considered to be the only true one. And yet the very possibility of illusion is an incentive to negate reality, to make use of an alternative reality. Thus illusion is a confirmation of how dual and ambiguous we are. And that - perhaps - it is impossible to define a man without the concept of illusion, an illusory imagination or a transgression of reality.

Illusion, a substitute for fulfilled dreams, but also a causative spirit for everything. Although it deceives and misleads, it can also be creative and constructive because illusions inspire and initiate actions, they are the driving force behind our deeds.Illusion is a kind of attractive, often risky game to play with others or oneself. A kind of challenge, search, denial, provocation and rejection of the known reality. But also a medicine and an escape from it in order to perceive the world from a different perspective, to “heal the soul” or just satisfy one’s need for adrenaline. It seems to be everything, although it is not (?) God. It was out of this unbridled want for illusion that art was created, including jewellery ... Because illusion is a glow, magic, dazzle, fantasy, it is emotion, memory and an inexhaustible source of stories, so why should we not succumb to it one more time.
/Monika Szpatowicz


Awards and prizes in the competence of the Jury
- Grand Prix, 10.000 PLN (c.a  2380 euro) + 1 kg of silver.
- 2nd Award, 5.000 PLN (c.a 1190 euro) + 1 kg of silver.
- Award of the Mayor of the City of Legnica, 3.000 PLN (c.a 715 euro)* + 1 kg of silver.
- Award of the Gallery of Art in Legnica, solo exhibition with catalogue worth 1000 euro.
- The Organizers’ Special Award for creative courage, uncompromising attitude, innovation or sense of humour, statuette “Silver Spur” + 1 kg of silver.


Prizes beyond the competence of the Jury:
- INHORGENTA MUNICH Award, Free stand at INHORGENTA MUNICH in 2019 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 2019.
- Polish Jewellery Award, advertisement in PB catalogue in 2019  
- Honorable mention of the Goldsmithing Artists` Association - diploma.
- Honorable mention of the Director of the Gallery of Art in Legnica, diploma + 0.5 kg of silver.


Date and Place of the Exhibition:
1st May - 10th June 2018
Opening ceremony: 19th May 2018
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.

Organizer:
The Gallery of Art in Legnica.
59-220 Legnica, pl. Katedralny 1
tel. + 48 76 862 09 10; 862 06 94; fax + 48 76 856 51 26
www.silver.legnica.pl, www.galeria.legnica.pl
e-mail: silver@galeria.legnica.pl, galeria@galeria.legnica.pl
Director: Zbigniew Kraska
Chief Curator: Monika Szpatowicz