General
In the first place the jury would like to congratulate to organizers for the courage to establish new international ceramic triennial and high-quality level of the whole arrangement which offers good review of worlwide artistic creation at ceramic field and presents international representative selection. Already 1st triennial managed to attract large number of participants - they were133 - from which 76 authors were selected for the exhibition. In the first round the jury exposed 23 names for prizes which indicates high-quality of artworks at the exhibition. The decision about 5 prize receivers was carried by acclamation.
The jury would specially like to expose and to praise distinctions in technological and conceptual approaches of individual authors and their searching of communication with contemporary art and thinking about ceramics as artistic material for the future. Explicitly good is the knowledge of ceramic technologies which is only basis and hidden ground of artistic researching but also necessary preliminary condition, we also perceived a great deal of experimetal mind.
We would also like to add the congratulation for the exhibition of students' works which were not in the competition for prizes, from among which we already see authors and works which we will meet at Unicum over 3 years.

Awards

1st prize: Silvia Mornati, Republic of Italy, for the artwork Ti scrivo questa lettera ... Directness and spontaneousness are characteristics of the clay artwork. How to create work of art which will not refuse them and will at the same time communicate with the audience. In universal words in language of all languages? Fantastic, invented writing of Silvia Mornati letter succeed in this. Authoress use the intimacy of the letter for personal speech which speaks to global audience. The concept in materialized form only rarely realizes so fast and so directly.
2nd prize: Valentina Savić, Republic of Serbia, for the artwork Poudriere Old-fashioned shape of powder compact is a nostalgic object with mysterious content. Half-open gives impression of simultaneous opening and closing. It hides the abstract landscape in which the reality of applicable object, that we first noticed, is breaking. The whiteness of unworked surface of the porcelain yet stresses its timelessness and loneliness in the space.
3rd prize: Danica Žbontar, Republic of Slovenia, for the artwork Folder The spontaneous transformation with which the authoress manages to change the usually applicable object - "flower pot" into sculpture s fascinating. Out of fragile elements she creates monumental pillar which with irregular rhythm of pastel shades and with distinctions in largeness of elements manages to preserve lyrical line. An ever recurring circular drawing in the surface adds contemplative line to the whole.
Acquisition prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia for the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec (Ex Aequo): Ito Hitoshi, Japan, for the artwork Colours Equally repeating forms, which because of casting into mould function industrial, are effective grounding for painting effect of this ceramic sculpture. Hemispheres are painting surfaces as they were canvas for abstract geometrical forms which flirt with opart. As simple as possible the Japan tradition of porcelain design and modernistic painting history combine. Old glazing technic Celadon is used in a modern way for a modern shape.
Acquisition prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia for the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec (Ex Aequo): Kyle Milne, USA, for the artwork AKA Cardboard The author experiments with materials and creates cardboard out of porcelain, as AKA cardbord is the name of the artwork. We see porcelain with appearance of cardboard but it behaves as porcelain. It is fragile, it crushes in front of us so it looks similar fugacious as cardboard which we easily throw away. The moment of material transformation into new material is captured and that changes the meaning and gives new value to the artobject.