10th edition – 2025/2026

SOUND x SILENCE

This year’s theme opened up broad possibilities for thinking about two apparent opposites that significantly shape our perception of the world.

Winning team: Private School of Applied Arts of Animated Production in Bratislava

Students: Ema Bahorcová, Nikita Barcajová, Sofia Bezdeková, Karolína Floriánová, Izabela Hulejová, Mia Kyseľová

Pedagogical guidance: Danica Ondrejovič

The winning project relied on an engaging visual concept that builds tension in the audience even after the telephone receiver is lifted, with various sounds echoing from it. The project works with our emotions, memories and fears, which are present within us also with regard to the current social situation.

9th edition – 2024/2025

The ninth edition was marked by the cancellation of the licence for the Slovak National Gallery by the Czech organiser of the Máš umelecké střevo? platform. Neither the semi-final nor the final of the competition took place in Slovakia as planned. One project was selected and presented at an international meeting at the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen, where we presented the selected team with the Črevo Award.

Winning team: Private Secondary Vocational School of Applied Arts in Topoľčany

Students: Lenka Lajstríková, Linda Harcsová, Ema Košíková, Natália Krajčíková, Michaela Štefánkovičová, Alica Horňáková

Pedagogical guidance: Monika Geršiová

The winning project focuses on spreading lies and hoaxes, which were processed into the form of a video in a red-and-blue visual version; thanks to glasses in the corresponding colour, you can separate these two opposing viewpoints from each other and choose your own.

8th edition – 2023/2024

Network

The eighth edition of the competition was the strongest so far in terms of the quality of the projects created. Two projects made it onto the shortlist, and since the jury could not decide, we awarded two first places!

Winning team: Private Secondary Vocational School of Applied Arts in Topoľčany

Students: Tuca Šiková, Alexandra Kmeťková, Veronika Kašiaková, Barbora Cabajová, Ľubomír Mišár, Samuel Galanský

Pedagogical guidance: Monika Geršiová

The winning project by the Cookies team focuses on the pitfalls of the internet and its use. It develops the theme of cookies and the traps associated with them. Through online communication www.acceptall.online and an interactive installation, it provides information about this issue. The team created an avatar that guides you through the educational process.

Winning team: Primary Art School in Spišské Podhradie

Students: Liana Buriková, Patrícia Labudová, Terézia Hromjáková, Patrícia Nehilová and Simona Dubecká

Pedagogical guidance: Paula Maliňáková

The Steel Thorn team decided to address the theme of forgetting as a consequence of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects many people in old age. Together they created an installation telling the story of a fictional woman, Žofia, in the middle of her living room, who, thanks to messages on Post-it notes, realises who she is. In creating the character’s life, the girls used objects from their own families, as well as knowledge about the disease in question. The motif of magnetic tapes resonates in the space to point out that the movement of the tape no longer works properly and that, during the illness, a person cannot properly replay, use or recall their memories.

7th edition – 2022/2023

Food

Winning team: Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica

Students: Simona Saláková and Matúš Pittner

Pedagogical guidance: Marianna Mlynárčiková

In the 7th edition of the competition, as many as three projects made it onto the jury’s shortlist for the winning place, but in the end we chose a seemingly unobtrusive installation in the form of a card index of photographs of cutlery belonging to the school’s teaching support staff and students, entitled Tell Me What You Eat With and I’ll Tell You Who You Are, by Matúš Pittner and Simona Saláková from the Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica, who worked under the guidance of the artist and teacher Marianna Mlynárčiková. This project underwent one of the biggest shifts during the competition and at the same time appeals through its very intimate presentation of a generational approach to the topic.

6th edition – 2021/2022

Freedom of Choice

Winning team: Private Primary Art School Piaristická in Nitra

Students: Oliver Kotrusz, Barbora Hlavačkova, Matúš Kráľovič and Viktória Šimanská

Pedagogical guidance: Katarína Jahnová

The winning project of the 6th edition of the competition, Merry-Go-Round , opens up a discussion about the freedom to choose parenthood, or the perception of family. The winning team went through six months of development and although at first they felt that this topic was perceived by society as taboo for them, working on the project created an opportunity for a very open discussion among those close to them as well as among peers and in intergenerational communication.

5th edition – 2020/2021

Idol

Winners: Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica and Secondary School of Art Industry in Zvolen

Students: Natália Romšáková, Alžbeta Vronková, Zuzana Zelorová, Natália Laubertová and Bianka Záchenská, Marián Malatinec and Samuel Skurčák

Pedagogical guidance: Marianna Mlynarčíková and Jana Gamcová

In the fifth edition of the competition, two projects caught the jury’s attention, entitled Hidden and Idol. A (Home) Social-Psychological Game, which shared first place. Both projects were of a very good artistic standard and involve the participation of gallery visitors, which has recently become a popular method for many male and female artists to draw the viewer into experiencing works of art. In the project Hidden, the jury appreciated the development of the work since the semi-finals of the competition, which emphasized the idea of the project – anyone of us can be an idol. After viewing the photographs, sitting comfortably in an armchair and becoming absorbed in the stories of the project creators’ idols, the viewer suddenly also becomes an idol – although unknowingly, their likeness is projected onto the wall, right next to the photographs of the idols. The jury also appreciated the very good graphic design of the publication, since the project was created by students from the photography department. The second project – Idol. A (Home) Social-Psychological Game points to another level of perceiving idols – their placement in public space in the form of monuments. The idea of the project is to try out the power of our own effect on other people when looking at one another, standing on pedestals of different heights, and to feel and become aware of mutual contact in different positions. The jury liked the project for its non-standard execution, possible not only in gallery spaces but also at home, because the pedestals can be various objects: a pile of magazines, a footstool or a chair.

4th edition – 2019/2020

Butterfly effect

Winner: Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica

Students: Adrián Dvorský, Jakub Ďurian and Viktor Domin

Educational supervision: Marianna Mlynarčíková

In the fourth edition of the competition, the jury was most impressed by the project entitled Et plantabis viriditas, which focused on the seemingly minor problem of grassing in cities. The project counts on public participation and offers a way to enrich urban flora not only with diverse plants but also with organisms for which a more varied composition of urban greenery is essential. The jury also appreciated the graphic execution of the project, which ran from the presentation of the idea all the way to the artistic output – a package of seed balls for visitors: “They had a good idea, and it became the driving force which, once set in motion, made everything else run smoothly,” commented jury chairman Braňo Matis on the complexity of the winning project. The students presented a work that clearly communicates with the viewer and draws them into the creative process.

3rd edition – 2018/2019

Collecting/Collecting

Winner: Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica

Students: Frederika Lukáčová, Katarína Žiaková, Natália Laubertová and Paulína Vörösmartyová

Educational supervision: Marianna Mlynarčíková

This time, the challenge trophy was received by students of the Secondary Vocational School of Information Technologies in Banská Bystrica, Frederika Lukáčová, Katarína Žiaková, Natália Laubertová and Paulína Vörösmartyová, with the project V.Ž.. They collected information and opinions about a well-known homeless person in Banská Bystrica, who also attracts attention by not asking for money in the usual way, but by writing “poems” in exchange for donations. All the collected opinions are broadcast at the same moment as part of the final installation, which makes them impossible to understand. The installation is complemented by a booklet with photographs of V. Ž. and several of his texts. Even after the end of the competition, the project is moving forward, and the publication of the booklet can be supported financially, with the proceeds used to purchase necessary items for V. Ž.

2nd edition – 2017/2018

Identity

Winner: Secondary Vocational School of Woodworking in Spišská Nová Ves

Students: Vanesa Múdra and Anna Mária Bednárová

Educational supervision: Michal Daňko

Although the battle for victory was very close, the jury ultimately decided to award first place to the project Variette by Vanesa Múdra and Annamária Bednárová from the Secondary Vocational School of Woodworking in Spišská Nová Ves, who, under the guidance of Michal Daňko, created a virtual identity named Variette. This identity integrates the unity of both authors; it is a combination of their appearance, voice, and life. The authors managed to convince people on social networks of the existence of this person, after which they themselves, from their own accounts, sent a warning to those discussing the fake identity and studied their reactions. The output of the project is a video recording in which the virtual identity explains its existence as dependent on gullibility.

1st edition – 2016/2017

Boundaries