Create. Challenge. Awake.

If you are a lover of art with socially meaningful messages and excited about the issues of civil society - challenge yourself and take part in the contest of awakaning artists CIVIL ALARM CLOCK of Bulgarian Center for Not-for-profit Law*.

From April 23 to May 26 you can send us your own photographs, illustrations or texts that speak of:

   >>>  вthe force of the civil association for common causes;

   >>>  the energy of the protests and the people in them,

   >>>  The meaning of свободата на словото freedom of speech and the fight for it.

The art works may be based on real events and happenings or to reflect your own opinion as an art creator towards the importance of the right to association, the right to free assembly or the freedom of speech for all of us. 

The art works will be assessed by a jury with years of professional experience. The most influential works will receive symbolic awards and will be featured in a special exhibition of socially engaged art. The authors of the works ranked first in each of the three categories will receive a cash prize of amount of 250 BGN (125 Euro).

 

RULES FOR PARTICIPATION

• Authors' photographs, illustrations and texts should explore and / or portray the attitude towards civil rights and freedoms as fundamental elements of democratic communities, in particular with regard to: the right to association (in associations, foundations, community centers, informal groups), the right to free assembly (in protests, rallies, demonstrations) and freedom of speech.
• Each author can apply with up to 5 of works to participate in the contest.
• Professional photos and amateur pictures (digital or analog) are accepted in the PHOTOGRAPHY category.
• Drawings, paintings, illustrations, graphic images, collages, typographical works and comics are accepted in the ILLUSTRATION category.
• Essays, poetry, prose, as well as publicistic texts are accepted in the TEXT category. The texts should have a maximum length of up to 3,000 words.

WHO CAN APPLY

Artists, including school students and university students can apply for the competition, without any age or experience restrictions. We encourage the application of artists who are at the beginning of their creative career.

Participants need not have professional creative experience or have their works exhibited or published.

CATEGORIES AND JURY

The authors may participate in each of the three categories: „PHOTOGRAPHY“, „ILLUSTRATION“, „TEXT“. The works will be reviewed and evaluated by a jury of prominent professionals and cultural figures in the relevant category:

 

I. Jury in "PHOTOGRAPHY" category

• Vesselina Nikolaeva – native photographer, graduated from the Academy of Arts in Utrecht, the Netherlands, her art works are always of social significance, expressing her position as an artist and a civilian active person.
• Miroslav Marinov – photographer, co-founder of Sofia Photography School; one of the inspirators of "I can - here and now".
• Hristina Tasheva – photographer, a conceptual artist, expresses an active civic position through her creativity and, as part of her photo books, deals with topics such as migration and national identity.

 

             Photo credit: Camila Cordeiro / Unsplash

 

II. Jury in "ILLUSTRATION" category

• Velina Mavrodinova – graphic designer, illustrator, co-founder and creative director of the Enthusiasm Studio.
• Rozalina Burkova - visual artist, illustrator and animation director working for brands and organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Ultra Music, Polyvinyl Records, Gucci, as well as various social causes and projects focusing on women's rights, the fight against gender stereotypes and violence against women.
• Nikolay Dimcgevski – painter, since 2005 he has been involved in painting and more than 15 exhibitions have been realized; he has participated in numerous performances, plenaries, musical projects.
• Mincho Todorov – artist and sculptor, teacher of painting and ceramics; creates a school for children focused on the study of nature, different styles of art and iconic artists.

 

             Photo credits: Eepeng Cheong / Unsplash

 

III. Jury in "TEXT" category

• Марин Бодаков - literary editor of the К. newspaper and a professor of journalistic genres, journalism and criticism at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".
• Stefan Ivanov – poet, playwright, winner of Ikar for the best performance for the play "Medea - my mother" (2013) and Ikar nomination (2014) for the play "Between the holidays".
• Silvia Choleva – radio journalist, editor-in-chief of Culture and leading the „Artefir“ program of the Hristo Botev program on the Bulgarian National Radio, writes poetry, fragments, literary criticism.
• Zarina Vasileva – journalist at OFFMedia, PhD student at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" with a study on the efficiency in the implementation of social causes in the online environment.

 

             Photo credit: Carl Cerstrand / Unsplash

AWARDS

The most influential and fascinating art works will be awarded with symbolic prize awards and the works ranked for the first place in each of the three categories will receive a cash prize of the amount of 250 BGN (125 EUR).

A wider selection of works will be featured in a special exhibition and publicly presented in Juny - July 2019 in the House of Civil Society Organizations and 21 Zone in Sofia.

 

SENDING OF THE ART WORKS

The digital copies of author's photographies, illustrations and texts shall be sent online in the format: jpeg, png, pdf or word, or, if larger than 5 MB, through a link to download the files from a free sharing platform (for example, WeTransfer.com; dox.bg; trans.it; dropbox.com) by email: contest@bcnl.org, contact person - Aylin Yumerova.

The candidates shall list the category of the art works, their titles and a brief description of the creative idea referring to the chosen right (no longer than 1 page). Candidates also indicate two names, email and telephone connection.

Deadline - until May 26, 2019 г.

* In 2018 we organized the first edition of the CIVIL ALARM CLOCK contest – for is it is one very imporant initiative for supporting young artists-activists which was , една важна за нас инициатива за подкрепа на млади артисти-активисти, inspired by our joint work with the international platform for socially engaged art Fine Acts. For the contest we received 166 great author photos, illustrations and texts by 80 candidates. The most influential works in each of the categories were included in a special exhibition „Awakеning: The Rights through the Eyes of Art“. To overcome the physical frames of the exhibition and to share the creative look of the artists in front of the broad audience, we created the winter „CIVIL ALARM CLOCK – The Rights through the Eyes of Art“, in which we placed part of the awarded works and their messages. You can look at the edition here:

 

We are very happy that this year the contest is a fact again and through it we can find and challenge the talents of the young artists to continue to create art will powerful socially engaged messages.

 

** Photo credit for the cover page: Daniel Apodaca / Unsplash

 

The competition is being realized within the framework of the project "Civil Alarm Clock - Children are Creating Rights", implemented by the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-profit Law. The project is funded by the Culture Program of Sofia Municipality for 2019.