BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/06/2007

A democratic caricature contest

YESIM YASAR and DUYGU OZGUN

The winner of the 24th Ayd?n Dogan International Caricature Competition regarded as the ?Caricature Oscars' was announced at the beginning of last week. An artist from Belarus Marina Markevitch came first. While Brazilian and Cuban caricaturists shared second spot, third place went to India. The award ceremony will be held on November 3 in Istanbul.

The Ayd?n Dogan Foundation holds the Ayd?n Dogan International Caricature Competition every year in Turkey since 1983. The award for best caricature is a cash prize of $8,000, a statuette, and plaques by the Ministry of Culture and Hurriyet newspaper. The works of Cuban Angel Boligan Corbo and Brazilian Dalcio Machado ended up with the second place award, and Indian artist C.B. Shibu took third place. The caricaturists that finished second will get $5,000 dollars, a statuette and golden plaque from Milliyet newspaper, and the third runner-up gets $3,500, a statuette and a silver plaque from Radikal newspaper.

The jury committee led by Glen Baxter comprised many master caricaturists; Latif Demirci, Selcuk Demirel, Peter De Seve (U.S.), Aristides Esteban Hernandez Guerrero (Cuba), Husamettin Kocak, Julian Pena-Pai (Romania), Tan Oral and Norio Yamanoi (Japan)

The competition had 1,218 cartoonists from 91 countries with 3,326 works this year. The jury committee meeting in Antalya's IC Green Palace Hotel eliminated most of those, and analyzed 198 works by 156 caricaturists from 46 countries.

The jury and the Foundation authorities gathered at a dinner and had a nice time accompanied by Bosporus scenery after the results were announced on Thursday.

Glen Baxter nicknamed "Colonel Baxter," noted for his surrealist and absurd drawings spoke about the importance of the competition saying, ?The competition brings people together from all over the world and has given recognition to young caricaturists.? He stated it was very difficult to decide on the magic 15 out of 198 works. ?In order to do this fairly we have to consider the opinions of people from different countries, and this is the only way to do that fairly,? he said. ?The awards have gone to the really good works and so I am satisfied with the results,? said Baxter and added that he was very impressed with Istanbul and the professionalism of the Ayd?n Dogan Foundation.

The renowned Turkish award winning cartoonist Tan Oral said, ?We did not see names, countries and signatures of the cartoonists on the caricatures, so it became a fair selection.? He stated that the winner deserved the award, adding, ? There are more shocking caricatures than the winner and it is also very plain. The winner seems to reflect the legal questions in Turkey so I liked that this shows the common idea of the jury.?

Peter De Seve, designer of many posters for Broadway shows, as well as of numerous animated feature films like Ice Age, was in the jury committee for the first time. ?I would like to see some more surprising imagery but there were some pretty good ones,? De Seve said adding, ?Theme can be cliche, but it is up to the skill of the cartoonist whether or not it turns into a cliche.? The successful illustrator will exhibit this year's works in New York in September.

Julian Pena-Pai, who was among the winners of the achievement award last year in this competition, is among the jury selecting the winners this year. ?The competition is democratic. Each member of the jury gives points to their favorite caricatures and the caricatures with the highest points win awards,? said Pena-Pai. ?Other competitions, like the one in Romania, regard the collection formed every year in Ayd?n Dogan Competition as a ?Bible' because we find the best ideas of all other competitions in the Ayd?n Dogan album.

Marina Markevitch

Markevitch born in 1968 attended many national and international competitions and her caricatures have been published in many newspapers. She got the Nasreddin Hodja 2002 special award, Ekateringburg 2002 Russia award for second place and Osnabruk 2005 Germany award for first place.

Dalcio Machado

The caricaturist born in 1972 in Sao Paolo has 84 awards at competitions in Brazil, Spain, Portuguese, the U.S. Greece, Japan, Italy, Iran and South Korea. His caricatures were published in many national and international newspapers.

Angel Boligan Corbo

The Cuban caricaturist born in 1965 has many works in all branches of graphic arts. He got first place awards in the competitions held in Portugal in 2000 and 2006 and the third rank award at the Gabrova Biennale in Bulgaria.

C.B. Shibu

Indian C.B.Shibu born in 1976 has got many awards in many national and international competitions like first rank in WEB International Caricature Fest, and he also opened exhibitions.

Source:

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=77126