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39th ICEFA Lidice 2011 - The ceremonial opening - Final Press Release
5. 6. 2011
On Wednesday, 1 June 2011, in the presence of ambassadors and political and cultural figures of the Czech Republic, the Lidice Gallery of the Lidice Memorial had the ceremonial opening of the 39TH INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S EXHIBITION OF FINE ARTS LIDICE 2011.
The event saw the attendance of First Vice President of the Senate of the CR Přemysl Sobotka, First Deputy Minister of Culture of the CR František Mikeš, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR Eva Bartoňová, Head of Public Diplomacy Department Jan Bondy, Senator Jiří Dienstbier, RNDr. Jiří Žalman and Mgr. Hana Prixová-Dvorská from the Ministry of Culture of the CR and Chairwoman of the Czech Commission for UNESCO Prof. RNDr. Helena Illnerová, DrSc. From among the embassies of the participating countries, there were present the representatives of Afghanistan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Cuba, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela.
The ceremonial opening witnessed “Rose of Lidice” medals awarded to the best 42 young artists from the Czech Republic by First Vice President of the Senate of the CR Přemysl Sobotka, Deputy Minister of Culture JUDr. František Mikeš, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR Eva Bartoňová and Head of Public Diplomacy Department Jan Bondy. The crystal palette was handed over to the owners and teachers of the school Simply Art, Henry and Iris Lau, as well as to 12 children from the same school by Chairwoman of the Czech Commission for UNESCO Helena Illnerová, Ambassador of the Republic of China J. E. Yu Qingtai, Senator Jiří Dienstsbier jr. and Chairman of ICEFA Lidice 2011 Panel of Judges Josef Zedník.
The event had children from the Armenian School in Prague, who danced and sang Armenian songs, and children from the Primary Art School Lounských Prague 4, who played fanfares. The accompanying programme offered children a juggling and theatrical performance by Vojta Vrtek, decorating of gingerbread cookies and rides in a horse-drawn carriage.
In spite of inclemency of weather, the ceremonial opening was a success. After the ceremonial award, the Lidice Gallery showed the best wining entries from all over the world to more than 500 guests.
About the Exhibition:
The exhibition and competition, as its name suggests, is organized annually to commemorate the murdered Lidice children. Although national initially, this exhibition became an international one in 1973 and now it is the oldest and one of the largest international exhibitions in Europe and in the world. The competition is intended for children from 4 to 16 years of age from schools and youth centres of every kind and the prevailing techniques are painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics and combined technique. Since 2001 the exhibition has been organized by the Lidice Memorial with the support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the CR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, the Czech Commission for UNESCO.
39th ICEFA Lidice:
The theme of this year’s international fine arts competition “THAT IS WHERE I LIVE, THAT IS ME” attracted children and teachers to such an extent that they contributed to the record number of this year’s entries. And again, the panel of judges had to assess some more entries than in the previous year – more than 25,000 areal and spatial entries combined. The children reflected everything around them in their creations, everything they live amidst. The themes that occurred frequently were architecture, cities, towns and villages with their landmarks, houses and gardens, nooks and little rooms with dolls. Children often made their self-portraits or drew their families and friends.
It is gratifying that more and more children from more and more countries are participating in the exhibition (newly e.g. Algeria, Belgium, Brunei, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Panama and Turkmenistan) and that the numbers of entries from individual countries (Azerbaijan, the UK, Uzbekistan) are rising as well. These facts suggest good work of the Czech diplomatic missions, which distribute information on the exhibition. Also important is the participation of children from places having historical links to Lidice (e.g. strong participation of children from Stoke on Trent in the UK (the place where the movement “Lidice Shall Live” came into being in 1942), or children from Lidice in Panama. Besides excellent collections from Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and newly also Hong Kong, established success went also to children from Bulgaria, India, Iran, Japan, Malaysia and Turkey while photography saw outstanding entries by children from Croatia, Russia and Ukraine. A heart-warming fact is that also the number of participating Czech and Slovak schools is raising – this edition saw entries from 501 schools in the Czech Republic and 176 ones in Slovakia.
Prizes:
Out of the total 25,450 entries from 66 countries 1,471 were selected by the panel of judges to win prizes including 212 medals. Out of 15,983 foreign entries 622 won prizes, among them 92 medals (67 individual medals and 25 medals to schools for their collections). The most medals were given to children from Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Czech children sent in 6,765 entries this year and received 606 prizes including 88 medals (49 individual medals and 39 medals to schools for collections). The most successful were children from Primary Art School Kolín, PAS Most, PAS Plzen and PAS Strakonice. Having sent in 2,702 entries this year, Slovak schools received 243 prizes including 32 medals (19 individual ones and 13 medals to schools). The most successful participants were children from PAS Banská Bystrica, PAS Holíč, PAS Michalovce, PAS Prešov and PAS Spišská Belá. The international panel of judges awarded the Prize of the Panel of Judges to the school Simply Art from Hong Kong. Besides achieving outstanding results in the exhibition every year, this school sent in a balanced and unique collection of areal entries this year.
The exhibition at Lidice will be open from 1 June to 31 October 2011; then, in a reduced extent, it can be seen at other places of the Czech Republic – at the Gallery of PAS Most, NKP Ležáky and NKP Lety. The touring sets of exhibits are available for loan to schools, libraries or other cultural facilities. You are cordially invited to visit these ICEFA venues.
Mgr. Ivona Kasalická
Vedoucí Lidické galerie, kurátorka MDVV Lidice
312 253 702; 736 642 318, kasalicka@lidice-memorial.cz; www.mdvv-lidice.cz
