Yesterday we held a press conference on the occasion of closing the application phase of the Graphics Review, the 3rd Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, and the pre-selection of the submitted artworks. On the press conference István Imreh Marton, director of the Covasna County Cultural Center, Zsolt Siklódi, graphic artist, the curator of the biennial, and Zoltán Vécsi Nagy, art historian, director of the Transylvanian Art Centre, related on the course of the events so far.
Zsolt Siklódi curator reported that 336 artists entered for the review with reproductions of 783 artworks. The applications arrived from 32 countries, most of them from Hungary and Romania, however, there also appear on the palette such distant countries as Egypt, Korea, China, Indonesia and Iran. According to Zsolt Siklódi, this great diversity can be considered as a step forward as compared to the previous biennial. He remarked that the two announced application categories met similar interest: 166 applications have been submitted in the category of traditional graphics and 170 applications in the category of experimental graphics; there are also artists who submitted artworks in both categories. 387 artworks have been registered in the former category and 396 in the latter.
It was also mentioned that the received digital reproductions corresponding to the conditions of the application were evaluated by the jury last weekend, between 26 and 28 November 2014. In the course of this the jury selected 228 artworks going on to the next phase, which will be exhibited at the Transylvanian Art Centre and will be included in the catalogue of the biennial. The exhibition will be opened on 22 January 2015, on the Day of Hungarian Culture, as the closing event of the biennial.
Zoltán Vécsi Nagy highlighted that the jury, consisting of internationally renowned graphic artists and university professors, evaluated the artworks, besides the criteria pertaining to content and form formulated in the Call for Application, also based on professional criteria such as the quality, message and character of the artwork. Summing up the evaluation of the jury he said: “The overall impression is that the quality has significantly improved as compared to the previous biennial. This means that it works well, the quality jury and the artworks presented on the exhibition impose a certain standard on the artists.” He concluded by stating his opinion that the biennial moves in the right direction.
