Viera Kleinová
Upon the initiative of the European Federation of Folk Art and Crafts, the competition began in 1999 as Rings in Water. First, eight European countries had organised individual national competitions and the international project concentrating on the relations and links of national crafts and contemporary design took place in 2000. Slovakia represented by the Centre for Folk Art Production was one of the participating countries. Two years later, ÚĽUV decided to carry on with the event as the only participating organisation. In 2004, third year of the competition interconnecting contemporary design and traditional craft will take place. As having been declared by the results of the previous year, the project addresses mainly the upcoming generation of designers, craftsmen and visual artists and their interest in competition was even clearer this year. The fact that it is the purposeful activity is supported by increasing number of competitors. In 2004, 205 authors with 114 works and 103 collections entered for the competition, so the panel assessed the total of 544 items. Gratifying was not only the increasing number of participants, but also the improving quality of items. This is the reason why upon the recommendation of jury this catalogue will, apart from the awarded works, include all the works from the second round. The 85 works and collections will be presented in November 2004 in the Dizajn štúdio ÚĽUV, awarded works will be also presented at the same time in the ÚĽUV Gallery.