The winners of the “Talents” competition for young craftsmen were determined online this time

One of the prizes went to Micaela Mornaghi (Argentina / Great Britain). She showed everyday objects which are very abstract in form and through the material stone look like amulets.

Due to Corona and the cancellation of the International Trade Fair in Munich, the presentation of the prizes and the exhibition will take place later

Every year, the prizes from the “Talents” competition are awarded at the International Craft Fair in Munich. This year, however, the fair was cancelled due to Corona, but the prizes were still awarded, namely online. It is still open when the actual ceremony and associated exhibition will take place.

The competition is open to craftsmen from design or technology professions. The maximum age for submitters is 33 years and 35 years, respectively. The works should be convincing in terms of originality and craftsmanship and “point beyond their time”, as the documents state.

So, it is not about product design, i.e. objects for everyday use, but about works with a strong artistic touch, which, however, can be seen to be based on ideas from the craft.

The competition is organized by the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria on behalf of the Verein zur Förderung des Handwerks e.V. (Association for the Promotion of Crafts) and is jointly sponsored by the Federal and Bavarian Ministries of Economics.

Vlastimil Šenkýřs (Czech Republic) showed “Lapis philosophorum”: it is a glass object that looks like stone but has strong alchemical features. According to the jury, nature, art and science come together in the work. Kristina Neumann from Australia showed a necklace. For her, the object symbolizes the home where young people nowadays live for a long time, but from which they move away with every step, so to speak.

There are no cash prizes, but normally a selection of the submitted objects is shown at the International Crafts Fair in Munich. A catalogue will also be published presenting the participants and their ideas.

The completion of the work must not be more than 2 years ago.

There’s no prize money and applicants must bear the cost of transportation to Munich and the insurance. Costs for collective transport from outside Germany will be paid by the fair’s organizer Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen (GHM).

Our photos show the 10 prize winners of this year. The first 9 come from design professions, the last one from a technical profession.

Download detailed application information German/English/French

Munich Chamber of Commerce, “Talents” Competition

International Skilled Trades Fair, Munich (Internationale Handwerksmesse München)

Photos: Chamber of Crafts Munich

Jordan Furze from Great Britain participated with the object “Nation Divided”, in which the individual rings refer to the Brexit in terms of surface, form, text and color.Sunniva Rademacher (Norway) elevated at “Vlesland” the repairing of a coat with patches to an act of artistic design.Irina Razumovskaya (Russia / Great Britain) showed ceramics with minimalist form and bursting, detached glaze. The jury associated them with birch woods, transience and decay.Isabelle Mack-Sim (Australia) works with clay. The kneading is unmistakable, and at the same time, one can also see in the object a criticism of the striving for perfect bodies.Dirk Vaessen (Netherlands) creates clothes made of plastic that play with the classic ideas of gender, sexuality and traditions.Søren Krag (Denmark / Norway) created tapestries in “Enûma Eliš” using a mixture of classical methods and digital motifs and digital weaving.In Rose Ekwes' design, the jury liked the approach of producing new textiles from a naturally existing basic material. These are biodegradable and particularly kind to the skin.

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(22.05.2020, USA: 05.22.2020)