Open Call for Preziosa Young Design Competition 2019

Are you a goldsmith, a designer, an artist, and you're under 35? The announcement for the selection of PREZIOSA YOUNG 2019 is now open.
Do not miss the opportunity to participate to PREZIOSA, the most prestigious Italian exhibition dedicated to the contemporary goldsmith research.
The competition is organized by LAO, Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School in Florence, in cooperation with PREZIOSA cultural association, and with:

- Florence city Administration.
- Inhorgenta fair, Munich (Germany).
- The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (Russia).
- Ganjam and Son, Bangalore, India.
- OMA, Florence.
- KLIMT02, Barcelona, Spain.

We invite worldwide artists, goldsmiths, silversmiths, designers, professionals, students to present projects that illustrate the work in which they are currently involved.
The objects presented for the competition must be not than two years older.

5 to 8 participants will be selected by the international panel and exhibited in specially designed exhibition spaces at PREZIOSA 2019, Florence Jewellery Week.
A catalogue will be published, to introduce the selected artists with a short biography, full colour images and a description of the work.
During the exhibition, the winner of the LAO special prize, and for the INHORGENTA prize will be officially announced.
The creative process, the reasons, the objectives of the candidates should be explained through the objects and the statement submitted to the jury.

Awards:
- PREZIOSA prize. The works of the selected participants will be presented in May-June 2019, in Florence, in conjunction with FLORENCE JEWELLERY WEEK 2019, and a full colour catalogue will be published.
- LAO special prize. One of the selected artists will be invited to Florence for a period of one to three months, as Artist in residence.
- INHORGENTA prize. One of the selected artists will be awarded with a free space for the participation as exhibitor to the 2020’s edition of the fair.
 

The selection will be based on:
-The quality of design and manufacture of the pieces;
-The contemporary use of the materials;
-The conceptual and technical innovation.

Participants:
Worldwide artists, goldsmiths, silversmiths, designers, professionals, students, may submit their candidature, provided that they are not older than 35 years by the end of 2018.

Cost:
Entries are free of charge apart from the costs for the shipment and related insurance of the items to and from Florence for the selected artists. Insurance during the exhibition (s) are at the charge of the organizer.

Materials and techniques:
Items submitted for the competition can be handcrafted, or produced by machinery, in 3D technology…. It is not the manufacturing process what determines the quality of the objects. Furthermore, the objects can be made in any material. The only condition relating to the admission of the objects, is that they must be objects to wear.
 
Selection:
The selection of the winners will be made going through the images and text submitted by the candidates. In the case that the jury deems it necessary, candidates will be requested to send objects for the final evaluation.
Privacy of the selection process. The online registration form has been structured so as each participant will be identified by an automatically generated numerical code. The jury will have access only to the data required for the selection (images, explanatory texts, artist’s statement), but not to the name and personal data of the candidates.
Candidate should NOT include his/her name or other references (web pages, email…) to his own person in the presentation texts (statement, description of work, etc.), in order to preserve the privacy process. Candidates who do not respect this rule will be disqualified from the competition.
 
Exhibition:
The PREZIOSA YOUNG exhibition will take place in conjunction with the international exhibition/conference PREZIOSA, FLORENCE JEWELLERY WEEK, May-June 2019, in Florence. The organizers could also plan other exhibitions along the year: the selected artists are committed to deliver their work to all the scheduled events. Each of the selected winners must present 5 to 10 pieces for the exhibition, following the indication of the organizers. These pieces must be the same (or similar) to those submitted for the selection. A full colour catalogue will be published, with CV and statement of the winners.
 
Shipment:
The shipping costs of the pieces (for the selection and for the exhibition), from the origin to Firenze and back home must be paid by the submitters. It is up to the artists to decide whether to insure and/or send their pieces by registered mail.
Shipment from Firenze to/by other exhibition locations will be paid by the organization.

Material requested for the online registration:

• Full name.
• Full address.
• Phone number (home/office/handy), with full international code and area code.
• Email address. Please note that all communications with the candidates will be conducted by e-mail, so it will be very important to use an internationally valid internet address, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, to avoid problems with regional/national email accounts.
• Education/work experience.
• Short statement (Max 3000 characters including spaces). Please note: Candidate should NOT include his name or other references to his own person in the presentation texts (statement, description of work, etc.), in order to preserve the privacy process. Candidates who do not respect this rule will be disqualified from the competition.
• Candidate must send the images for 5 different objects.
• Each object can be illustrated with up to 5 images.

Accepted files: JPG format, minimum size, 2400x1600 pixel; minimum resolution 300DPI.
Captions must be in English language.

For each image:

• Title. Example: Purple rain.
• Year. Example: 2015
• Typology. Example: Ring
• Materials. Example: Silver, titanium, emerald, plastics, stainless steel.
• Size (Height, width, depth, in millimetres). Example: 150x120x 200
• Credits (photograph , collectors…)

We suggest to submit still life images, using a white or black background. Pictures of worn pieces can be accepted only in case of obvious difficulty in photographing the objects in still life.