Wednesday, 11 September 2024 15:25

OPEN CALL: 33. International Jewelry Competition WOW Effect!

 

International Jewellery Competition will be the main event of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2025. The competition has been organized by the Gallery of Art in Legnica since 1979 (initially as the National Review of the Goldsmiths Forms). It is one of the oldest initiatives to promote contemporary artistic jewellery in Europe, supporting creative explorations within a niche field at the intersection of art, craft and design.

Artists from all over the world, goldsmiths, designers, professional and amateur jewellery makers are invited to participate in the contest. The competition is artistic in nature, and the organizers leave artists full freedom of choice of techniques and materials, noting that a key criterion for evaluation is a clear reference to the competition's main theme (WOW Effect!). The use of silver in the submitted work – while it remains a suggestion of the organizers – is not required. 

 

 

Is art supposed to be a WOW effect? Is jewellery supposed to be it? After the post-humanist turn, the emptiness and delusion of discourses in the crisis of humanity, we no longer expect jewellery to be just pessimistic malediction and dystopian prophecies, but also hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, an antidote to wipe away apocalyptic tears. A magic wand that will make the world seem a more beautiful place than it actually is. We expect a WOW effect!

 

Justyna Teodorczyk, PhD

 

 

Why a theme at all?

Of course, we would like the efforts of artists, designers, jewellery makers - especially those connected with the preparation of a new competition entry - to focus on socially and culturally important issues. It is about the quality of the exhibition itself, but also about a pretext for discussions in which not only politicians, activists and opinion leaders should have their say.

The theme is important.

It introduces ordering criteria, facilitates comparisons, provokes reflection. We determined this many years ago, and we consistently adhere to this principle, while observing that the responses are becoming increasingly superficial, safely uncontroversial, politically and aesthetically correct.

But...

...perhaps it is in the area of aesthetics, which has been neglected recently, that it is most difficult today to come up with innovative solutions

– that WOW! effect – surprising, inspiring, unprecedented?

Surely it is still possible!

Even in jewellery / especially in jewellery.

 

Prof. Sławomir Fijałkowski

 

 

The distribution of awards and the qualification of works for the exhibition is decided by an international jury consisting of renowned artists, professors, critics, experts and jewellery collectors. The jury meeting takes place in Legnica and requires physical viewing of the artworks.

 

Post-competition exhibition will be presented in the frame of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER in the Gallery of Art in Legnica from April to July 2025.

 

The Grand Opening of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER and the announcement of the winners will take place on May 9-10, 2025.

 

The works rejected by the jury are traditionally presented at the Holownia exhibition during the Festival in the Old City Hall in Legnica, so that the audience has the opportunity to compare their own opinions with the jury's verdict. Artists can resign from participating in the Holownia exhibition.

 

Jury of the competition:

Eva Fernandez Martos (Spain), Sławomir Fijałkowski (Poland), Paweł Kaczyński (Poland), Märta Mattsson (Sweden), Barbara Schmidt (Germany)

 

How to participate in a Competition:

  1. Pay a return fee for shipping the works back after the competition (in the case of participants from abroad) or declare in the entry form that they agree to pay the transport costs upon delivery (in the case of participants from Poland).
  2. Send the completed entry form and the payment confirmation to the following email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
  3. Send the package with the work or deliver it in person along with the printed and completed entry form and the payment confirmation to the address of the Gallery of Art in Legnica by 20 January 2025. If you are a participant from non-European Union countries, please check the important information below the page.

 

The works, together with the printed completed entry form, should be sent to the address:

The Gallery of Art in Legnica
Katedralny 1/1
59-220 Legnica
Poland
mob. +48 535 600 599

 

The deadline for sending works is January 20, 2025. There is no pre-selection based on photos. All the submitted pieces have to arrive physically to the Gallery of Art in Legnica by this date.

Participation in the competition is free – participants only cover the cost of shipping and returning the works. The organizers ask that the works be packaged properly to protect them from damage in transit.

 

Download:

TERMS & REGULATIONS

ENTRY FORM


 

Important information for participants from countries that are not members of the European Union:

Due to customs procedures for parcels from outside the European Union, the delivery time may be extended.

Participants from non-European Union countries are requested to send the parcel tracking number and courier company name to the following email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In accordance with the regulations, participants will be required to pay customs duties. The amount of customs fees is calculated individually for each shipment, and the amount depends on the value of the contents declared by the shipper of the shipment.

 

 

Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER

Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.

 

 

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