Youth-Arts-Competition 'Planets'
50 years ago the space-probe Pioneer 10, the first one to visit the outer solar system, was successfully launched by NASA, exactly spoken on March 3rd, 1972. After Mariner 9 which was the first to reach an orbit around Mars, in late 1971 and Mars 3, a Russian space-probe which was the first to land on Mars a few days later, however was lost after 20 seconds, this was the third groundbreaking event in solar system research within a short time.
On the occasion of this anniversary we start an arts competition for young artists from 6 to 18 years about the bodies of the solar system. Entries must be submitted by 14 August 2022 by e-mail (vjfg@vjfg.at), Signal/Whatsapp or link to a social-media-upload which is accessible without membership. The theme is strictly bodies of the solar system (e.g. planets, moons, asteroids, comets) but it is encouraged to go beyond a simple depiction of these*. Possible media are painting, collage, photography, inlay-works, textile works, pottery and other sculpturing media, as long as these can be represented by a digital picture².
There will be awards for Upper Austrian participants, as well as for others (this is due to our funding conditions). Awards include certificates, strictly based on the quality of the work, and prices like books, games and vouchers, according to age and other applicable criteria. Group entries are possible, but not multiple entries by individuals. Groups can also submit a number of entries by their individual members. Submissions must give age, name and a valid contact. In the case of groups, minimum one contact name, age and the number of contributors must be given.
Rights remain with the young artists, except for publications in connection with the presentation of the works by the organizers (see below), including media-reports about award-winning entries. In these cases the works will only be published with a copyright-label. The competition is run by Mesopotamia Bibliothek Linz and Verein für Jugendforschungsgruppen (VJFG).
* an example is the title-picture: Here, someone created a mosaic based on a painting of Jupiter moon Io, and the photographer used the mosaic in turn for a humoristic composition of elements.
² there is no minimum size but it should be understood that too low a resolution might not be able to show the quality of the work. Likewise, entries above 10 MB are not recommended as we have to keep the file size manageable for jury members and other people who have to handle it.