The Szekler’s Graphics Biennial is organized for the first time. The competition & exhibition was initiated by the County Councils Covasna, Harghita and Mures, Lăzarea’s Cultural and Creation Center and Covasna County’s Cultural Center. Both cultural centers had already organized several artistic camps, workshops and exposition, and during these events through conversation and feedback received from different artists, they understood that in this area there are only few opportunities for graphic artists to express and present themselves. This lead to the idea to organize a competition combined with exhibition, which offers the graphic artists from this region the opportunity to present themselves, and thus allows mapping the actual trends in contemporary graphic art. The two cultural centers soon found supporters for their project: the three County Councils (Covasna, Harghita and Mures), respectively a construction company from Hungary, Vegyépszer Zrt. offered to ensure the main prize. The Biennial’s first-patron is Kelemen Hunor, minister of culture and national heritage who said that it is a pleasure for him to support a national, or even an international event, which was initiated on a local level and which can contribute to the development of the Romanian graphic art.
„We haven’t organized this type of biennial in our region before. It is not a coincidence, that our webpage is called Graphics Review, we are researching the existent trends and realizations of the region’s graphic art, but we are also looking for international participation, this is why we launched our call for application in 3 languages: English, Hungarian and Romanian. It is also known that competitions have always an inspiring effect on the work of the artists, and I think that the artists from our region deserve to have a possibility to compete. The art works will be evaluated by a jury which is composed of artists and art historians, recognized on an international level.
After closing the competition, based on the jury’s decision, 4 art woks will be rewarded. Apart from this, all of the art works received will appear in a catalogue. The first 70 art works selected by the jury will appear in a photographic format, the other art works will be listed. The art works proposed by the jury will be part of an exhibition. The first location of the exhibition will be in the Gyárfás Jenő Gallery in Sfântu Gheorghe, the next location will be in Miercurea Ciuc and Târgu-Mureş. The official opening of the exhibition and the handing over of the prizes will the take place at the Theater Tamási Áron in Sfântu Gheorghe, on the18th of May 2010, at 19:00 o’clock.