The Trieste Contemporanea Committee announces the 13th edition of the International Design Contest Trieste Contemporanea with the aim of showcasing the most original design offerings from the countries of Central Eastern Europe.

The competition is a biennial event that now attracts the interest of designers from 23 European countries, and the ’CEI Venice Forum for Contemporary Art Curators’, another biennial event that deals with the topics of cultural promotion and the exchange of curatorial experiences in occasion of the opening of the Venice Biennale.

The 2018 edition of the contest will be based on the ongoing two-year project Harbour for Cultures (H/C). H/C draws inspiration from the real case history of how to convert and reuse the area of the Porto Vecchio (old port) of Trieste, which has remained unused and in a state of decay for decades. H/C is an incubator where creative minds of art curators, artists and thinkers from other disciplines re-interpret the usual functions of a port in view of shaping an image of a “new port”, with its interim state between arriving, belonging and leaving, where people freely exchange their own cultures (instead of goods), while assuring their values (a new idea of insurance…) so that new profits (benefits of art and culture) are earned by the many.

The H/C process is now extended by this call to designers, who, while enrolling to the 2018 contest, will challenge this utopia: a vision beyond geographical and mental borders to create a (near) future shared society.

There is no entry fee.

Eligibility

Open to all designers born in CEI countries (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine).

The 2018 edition of the contest has been extended to designers born in Estonia, Germany, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey as well.

Prize

• BEBA Prize - for the youngest designer among those selected: 1000 EUR
• TRIESTE PRIZE 2018 - for the best design on the set theme: 1000 EUR
• CEI PRIZE 2018 - best design from one of the non-EU CEI countries: 3000 EUR
• GILLO DORFLES PRIZE / First Prize Trieste Contemporanea 2018: 4000 EUR

The awards ceremony will take place in Trieste, Italy during the period September-November 2018. The winning designers will be invited to travel to Trieste at the organizing Committee’s expense in order to collect their prize.