Competition for “Erste Fragments 11” announced

Zagreb, 10 March 2015 – For the 11^th year running, Erste banka announced the competition called “Erste fragmenti” (Erste Fragments), calling young artist up to 30 years of age and art school students to submit their works by 10 April 2015 for a chance to win one of the awards. This is a traditional project with which Erste Bank supports young artists and enables them to make a name for themselves by buying their pieces of work and presenting them with special awards and scholarships. The pieces to be purchased will be selected by a jury of experts consisting of manager of the Matica hrvatska Gallery Vanja Babic, Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb Aleksandar Battista Ilic, Jutarnji list art critic Patricia Kis, Academy painter Sebastijan Dracic, curator and art manager Vanja Zanko, and manager of Erste Bank’s urban culture platform Urbanka Antonia Juric.

The cash Grand Prix in the amount of HRK 10,000 will go to the artist whose piece (sculpture, painting, graphic or installation) is chosen as the best by the jury. The same artist will be able to stage a solo exhibition. Apart from the jury choice, a special audience choice award in the amount of HRK 3,000 will be granted, along with one annual scholarship in the amount of HRK 1,000 per month, to an art school student from Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek or Split. This year there is also a competition for creating a recognisable visual design and logo for Erste Fragments, open to all designers, artists and illustrators up to 30 years of age, also until 10 April. The winner will take the prize of HRK 5,000 in cash.

By buying the works of art, Erste Bank is trying to enable young and aspiring artists to work and study and eventually to present their works to a wider public. For that reason, once the competition is over an exhibition will be organised in the Kranjcar Gallery in Zagreb with all the purchased and awarded pieces.

The Erste Fragments competition was first held in 2002 and over the past ten editions some 140 works by young Croatian artists have been purchased and are now displayed in more than 130 locations (outlets and offices) of Erste Bank in Croatia. The authors of many of the purchased pieces, such as Tanja Deman, Sebastijan Dracic, Ivana Fijolic, Alem Korkut, Ines Matijevic Cakic, Lala Rascic, Zlatan Vehabovic, Matko Vekic and many others, in the meantime became distinguished names in the Croatian art scene.

More information about applying to the tender is available at www.erstebank.hr