COMPETITION TOPIC

Fires, floods, disasters, life's adversities...crises. Often the real heroes in these stories are the VOLUNTEERS who have the extraordinary power to come together in an instant and help to quickly deal with any problem. And nothing can stop them when they believe that the cause of the common Good is worth it. Volunteering is actually another name for association. Whether initiated formally or not, whether campaigned or spontaneous, volunteering connects people with Others for the greater cause of helping themselves. For us, volunteers are activists at heart. They do not put up with injustice. And instead of waiting, they act. They come together as civil organizations or informal groups, or join voluntary NGO campaigns to make the world and society in which we live a better place.

If you are a creative person and deal with photography, drawing or writing texts, participate with your author's work in the sixth edition of the competition for socially engaged art

CIVIL ALARM CLOCK

"Connected for Good: The Power of Helping Each Other"

Through  your art, we expect you to tell us stories about the unifying energy of volunteerism. When developing your creative concept, you can be guided by these few guiding questions:

>> How does volunteering connect people?

>> How great can be the power of civil association when it is in the name of a common cause - to help?

>> What can we achieve when we act together?

>> Can teaming up be the key to the success of any volunteer campaign?

 

You can look for the answers out there, among the people, volunteer groups and civil organizations. The author's works can reflect real events or incidents, meetings with civil organizations, volunteers, as well as be entirely a product of your imagination.

Why it matters: The right to association is one of our basic civil rights, allowing us to organize, to form communities, to speak and be heard, to do what we believe is best for ourselves and for those we want to help.

We are sure that you are among those passionate activists for whom human and civil rights are an ideal, not a given, and you are ready to speak about important topics in the creative language that has long been your best.

We can't wait to see your inspiration!

CONTEST SCHEDULE

Why it matters: The right to association is one of our basic civil rights, allowing us to organize, to form communities, to speak and be heard, to do what we believe is best for ourselves and for those we want to help.

- Application in the sixth edition of the "Civic Alarm Clock" competition: February 1 - April 1, 2023.

- Online voting on the competition's Facebook page: April 24 - May 24, 2023.

- Festival of art and rights CIVIL ALARM vol.6 and awarding of the winners of the competition: July 1, 2023.

- Exhibition with selected works from the competition in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theater: July 3-17, 2023.

RULES FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE COMPETITION

1) Candidates for participation in the competition can be: Bulgarian and foreign authors, over 14 years of age.

2) Applicants are not required to have professional creative experience. Works by established authors are accepted, and the participation of artists who are at the beginning of their creative career is encouraged.

3) Each author can submit up to 5 works for participation in each of the 3 categories: "Photography", "Illustration" and "Text".

4) Applicant photographs, illustrations and texts must be original works that explore and reflect the assigned theme: "Connected for Good: The Power of Helping Each Other".

5) It is a requirement that the works have not been awarded or published in another competition.

6) In the "Photography" category, the following are accepted:

• professional photographs
• amateur photography

7) In the "Illustration" category, the following are accepted:

• illustrations
• drawings
• posters
• painting
• graphic images
• collages
• typographic works
• comics

8) In the "Text" category, we accept:

• essays of up to 1,200 words
• poetry texts up to 1,200 words
• prose texts of up to 1,200 words

9) The application must include:

• Two names, email and phone number to contact the author/author collective
• Age of author/author team
• Category of the work/series of works
• Title of the work/series of works, respectively – of each individual work (when not in a series)
• Message of the work - up to 60 words
• A brief history of the work/series of works - when it was created and what provoked the author/author team to create it
• Consent, respectively disagreement of the author/author collective to publish the work/series of works on the competition's Facebook page for audience voting.

10) The authors, whose works are awarded in the competition and classified for inclusion in the exhibitions, must authorize and expressly grant to the Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law - organizer of the contest "Civic Alarm Clock" 2023 - the royalty-free right to use the author's works for the promotion of the results of the competition and distribution of the works for non-commercial purposes through the exhibitions and the image bank for free use by third parties.

Important: The Bulgarian Center for Non-Commercial Law made a preliminary selection of the received applications for their compliance with the theme and rules of the competition. Works that do not meet the conditions of the competition, damage the good name of the organizer, incite violence or hate speech, will not be allowed to be evaluated by the jury, as well as for public voting.

Important: The Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law , does not distribute or promote in any way author's works not ranked by the jury, received at the application stage, whose authors have indicated in the application form their express disapproval of their works being published on the competition's Facebook page for audience voting.

HOW AND WHERE TO SEND YOUR WORK

Step 1: To enter the contest, you must fill out this >> APPLICATION FORM <<

Step 2: The digital copies of the author's photographs, illustrations and texts are prepared for sending in the format: jpg, png, pdf or word - as attachments. If they are larger than 5 MB – prepare for sending via a link to download the files from a free sharing platform (for example, wetransfer.com, dox.bg, tranz.it, dropbox.com).

Step 3: The application form and the works attached to it are sent to email: budilnik@bcnl.org, contact person - Ailyn Yumerova.

Important: Works in "Illustration" should be previously digitized as photographs or scanned (in case they were not created in a digital medium).

Application deadline: April 1, 2023 inclusive.

 

JURY OF THE COMPETITION

 It is a great honor for us to have prominent professionals and cultural figures in the respective category among the expert jury this year:

 

Jury in the PHOTOGRAPHY category

Nadezhda Pavlova - curator of Synthesis Gallery. She has been interested in photography for over 20 years, initially as an author and later as a curator and historian. In recent years, the focus of her research has been photobooks. Nadezhda leads a course on "History of Photography in Bulgaria" at the National Academy of Arts, where she is currently a doctoral student.

Miroslav Marinov – freelance photographer, photography teacher and founder of the Sofia School of Photography.

Alexander Nikolov – visual journalist and digital person, author of the multimedia documentary story "The Last Gift of Man". He is the winner of the awards "Journalist of the Year" 2021 of BHK, "Site of the Year" 2021, BG Press Photo, etc. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of the United Kingdom. He works as a communication expert at the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation.

Jury in the ILLUSTRATION category

Velina Mavrodinova – co-founder and long-time creative director of Enthusiasm – the leading branding company. With her 30 years of experience as a graphic designer, art director and illustrator, she is behind the construction of some of the most popular brands on the Bulgarian market, successfully established on international markets as well.

Rozalina Burkova – visual artist, illustrator and animation director, worked for brands and organizations such as New York Times, Human Rights Watch, NBC, Tate Modern, Washington Post and Gucci, as well as for various social causes and projects with a focus on responsible treatment of nature, women's rights and the fight against gender stereotypes.

Vesela Dancheva – director and producer of short animated films, the main engine of the Kompot Collective platform and animation teacher at the New Bulgarian University and the National Academy of Arts. He has been professionally engaged in animation since 2001, when he completed his education at the "Willem de Kooning" Art Academy, Rotterdam and specialized at the "School of Visual Arts", New York. After returning to Bulgaria in 2006 creats Kompot Collective together with Ivan Bogdanov, where they brought together artists with a diverse visual language and an affinity for animation. Over the years, the collective has produced dozens of author's animated films, which have been awarded and selected at national and international film festivals around the world.

Jury in TEXT category

Zahari Karabashliev - Bulgarian writer, playwright and screenwriter, editor-in-chief of the large Bulgarian publishing house "Siela". He is the author of the books: "The Tail", "Havra", "18% Gray"; of the story "Thirst"; of the collections of short stories and essays: "A Not So Brief History of the Airplane", "A Brief History of the Airplane", "Symmetry"; the co-authored illustrated children's book "The Tale"; of the collections of plays "Recoil", "He loves me, he doesn't love you", "Overcoming", "Our Christmas". His fiction has been translated and published in over 10 countries, included in the prestigious American anthology "Best European Prose 2018". His plays have been staged in Bulgaria and abroad. The shows "The Tail" (dir. Yavor Gardev, DKT "Ivan Radoev", Pleven) and "Talent" (dir. Vasilena Radeva, DKT "Ivan Radoev", Pleven) are being performed in Sofia and the country. He is the author of the screenplays "18% Gray", "Once Upon a Time a Western", "Sunday Evening"; of short films "Story with Cake" and "Warmth of a Stranger". In 2017, he founded the International Literary Festival "Varna Lit". From 2014 to 2019, he led a course in creative writing at SU "St. Kliment Ohridski" as a part-time teacher. In 2021, he was awarded the "Doctor honoris causa" of Shumen University "St. Bishop Konstantin Preslavski".

Veselina Sedlarska – journalist with 40 years of experience in the field. She worked in the newspapers "Slivensko delo", "Chernomorski Far", "Trud", "Standart" and "Novinar", in radio "Svobodna Europa", in the magazine "Tema" and in the commentary site "Reduta", now she publishes in "Portal Culture". She has written six books: I Dreamed of Mississippi, Noah's Passengers, The Well, Bulgaria for Beginners, Depression Loves Me, and the short story collection Hungry Hearts. She is a winner of journalistic awards. She has edited some of the most popular Bulgarian novels published by Siela publishing house. She also works as a translator of books from English.

Stefan Ivanov – poet, culturologist and doctor of philosophy, author of poetry collections, resident playwright of the National Theater of Luxembourg (2018). He is the co-author, together with Ivan Dobchev, of the play "Medea - My Mother", which won "Icarus" (2013) for the best performance, and his play "The Same Day" was staged in New York at LPAC (2017). In 2019, the short animated film "Tasks for the Day", based on his poem of the same name, was Bulgaria's official Oscar submission.

 

Important: When evaluating the applications, the jury will consider how far:

The work/series of works meet the objectives of the competition.

The work/series of works is original and does not copy pre-existing works.

The work/series of works has a pronounced artistic value and compositional integrity/completeness.

The creative content is understandable, carries clear messages and parallels the theme "Connected for Good: The Power of Helping".

The theme is presented in an original and attractive way.

Through the work/series of works, commitment, understanding and attitude towards the content and significance of the civil right of association is expressed.

 

AWARDS FOR EXCELLENT AUTHORS

The best deserve an award and an additional incentive for development! That is why the most impactful and related works will also receive a financial award from the competition fund.

With our donation campaign*, we aim to raise BGN 10,000 for the prize fund of the competition and for the organization of the rights and art festival CITIZEN ALARM vol.6, at which the awarded authors will be awarded.

The amount will be distributed in the form of cash prizes to the 9 authors of the most impactful works awarded by the jury for "First Place", "Second Place" and "Third Place".

A wider selection of works will be presented in an outdoor exhibition in the metropolitan garden in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theater from July 3 to 17, 2023, as well as promoted in an online exhibition. The awarded works will be published in the online image bank for the free use of images on the BCNP website.

Important: Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law will conclude an individual award contract with each author who won a monetary award. Contracting period: early July 2023.

 

* DONATION CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRIZE FUND OF THE COMPETITION

By April 1, we aim to raise BGN 10,000 for the prize fund of the "Civic Alarm Clock" 2023 competition and for the organization of the Art and Rights Festival CIVIL ALARM CLOCK vol.3.

Half of the collected donations will be distributed in the form of cash prizes to the authors of the best works that tell about the power of helping when we are connected in Good.

Share our campaign to reach more people:

Support creators - defenders of rights and civil activism with a donation to the cause of

❤️CIVIL ALARM CLOCK❤️

 

THE VOICE OF THE PUBLIC

While the expert jury evaluates the works, the public will also be able to broadcast their favourites. From April 24 to May 24, 2023, 11:59 p.m., online voting will take place on the competition's Facebook page. The works that received the largest number of shares in their category ("Photography", "Illustration", "Text") will be awarded the "Audience's Choice" distinction, and their authors will receive symbolic subject prizes.

Voting Rules for the 2023 PUBLIC CHOICE Award 

WHO ORGANIZED THE COMPETITION AND WHY

Organizer of the contest "Civil Alarm Clock" Foundation "Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law" (BCNP). We are a non-governmental organization for public benefit. Our mission is to support people in Bulgaria to associate freely and be civically active. We have been doing this for over 22 years. For us, association and civil organizations are more than a value – they are the engine of civil society.

Therefore, it is particularly important for us that more and more people recognize the civil organizations around them, sympathize with their causes, volunteer and trust in the power of connecting in Good and helping.

With this idea, 5 years ago we launched "Civil Alarm Clock" - a competition for artists who want to raise the topic of civil liberties and the opportunity to associate, speak freely, and protest. Over 480 Bulgarian and foreign authors have participated in the five editions so far. We received more than 940 works: illustrations, comics, poems, essays, short stories, journalistic materials, photographs, photo stories.

FOR QUESTIONS

 If you have any questions related to the application, you can write to us by email: budilnik@bcnl.org.

We hope we've inspired you and now you have an idea of ​​how you can tell a story about the power of civil rights, goodness, and togetherness. We look forward to seeing you on this adventure!

 

______________________________

The competition is realized with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation

 

Author of the title illustration "Be a person - Ambassadors of goodness" is Denislav Stoychev, winner in the "Photography" category of the "Citizen Alarm Clock" 2021 competition