Adriena Pekárová
Around one hundred professionals registered for the 14th year of textile miniature. The jury headed by Professor Marga Persson from Austria made a shortlist of 160 works from 63 artists from 22 countries. 178 students from Slovakia and from the school in the U.S.A. at which designer Jozef Bajus is a teacher registered with 110 works.
As the headline of this year´s textile miniature, Banalita a noblesa /Banality and nobility invited artists to contemplate over contrasts, over real meaning of things which are not explainable by surface, gloss and price. Artists often worked with a contrast of banal material and value inside it. For example, Daniel Szalai (SK) made a noble symbol of royal crown from toothpicks and metal nuts. Alzbieta Kuzniar (PL) and Teréza Krnáčová made the structures of precious crystals from plastic materials. Blanka Šperková (CZ) and Finns Nina Nisonen and Hannele Ollakka presented the original noble version of an ordinary item, a shoe. It was a perfect opportunity for artists that are involved in recycling design, namely for Soňa Sadilková (SK) and Nikola Čiripová (SK) or for Ya-chu Kang (Taiwan). Textile miniature is a category with great potential for various materials and techniques. Majority of artists have specific techniques and diversity of materials such as fibre, textile, plastic, metal, wood, wire, natural materials and found items.
Latvian visual artist residing in Paris Velga Lukaza was awarded the prize from the TXT association for her mini-tapestries for making of which she employed weaving, embroidering and beads applying techniques. Professor of textile art at the Kaunas Academy of Visual Arts Egle Ganda Bogdaniene received the jury prize for her object Baby using felting technique. Student at the J. Vydra Secondary School of Applied Arts in Bratislava Anna Gregušová who attends a class headed by academic painter Iveta Miháliková received the student prize for the collection of jewellery – Plastic foam as a decoration.
Ludwika Zytkiewicz-Ostrowská from Łódź (TXT prize, 2011), Melanie Greussing, Austria (student category prize in 2011) and Brigitte Amarger, France (jury prize, 2011) came with more numerous collections.