After the success of their ‘Silent Shores’ poster competition in 2020, the Montreux Jazz Festival runs another influential arts initiative with the theme of ‘RESTART’. For this innovative competition, the Montreux Jazz Festival has joined forces with its partner Vaudoise Assurances, which supports contemporary Swiss art through its Arts Committee. There will be several prizes that will be awarded, and thirty artists will have the opportunity to have their work exhibited during the Festival.
© 1983 – Artwork by Keith Haring (pink)
The Montreux Jazz Festival and Vaudoise Assurances both have a long-standing connection with visual arts. Since 1967 the Festival has given a Swiss or international artist free rein over its official poster design every year.
© 1986 – Artwork by Keith Haring and Andy Warhol
Over its 55 year history, the Festival has commissioned renowned artist such as Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and David Bowie to design the Festival’s annual poster. Marylou Faure was recently announced as the artist to create the poster for the 55th edition of the Jazz Festival, which takes place this year from 02-17 July 2021.
Through this competition, Montreux Jazz Festival and Vaudoise Assurances desire to support the arts sector, which has been globally affected by the pandemic. The competition is therefore limited to visual arts professionals, apprentices and students, who can enter here.
Montreux Jazz Festival will provide details about the format of the 55th Festival on 8 April 2021, when it will reveal its own vision of a ‘restart’.
PRIZES & OPPORTUNITY TO BE DISPLAYED AT THE FESTIVAL
A jury of Montreux Jazz Festival and Vaudoise Assurances staff will select the thirty best posters, which will be displayed during the 55th Festival.
A professional jury will then choose the ten best posters from among the thirty on the longlist. The jury will be chaired by Malika Favre, graphic artist and designer of the 2017 Festival poster. She will be joined by Stefano Stoll, director of the Festival Images in Vevey, and Alexis Georgacopoulos, director of the Lausanne ECAL/École Cantonale d’Art (University of Art and Design).
The ten shortlisted posters will be printed in a 50×70 cm format and sold throughout the Festival network, in limited runs of 100. For every poster sold, the artist will receive a 20% commission on the sale.
The professional jury will then choose its three favourite designs, and award the following prizes:
- First prize: CHF 5,000
- Second prize: CHF 2,000
- Third prize: CHF 1,000
The ten posters selected by the professional jury will also be put to a vote via the Montreux Jazz Festival social media channels, with the chance to win a Public Prize of CHF 3,000.
Finally, Vaudoise Assurances will award a Vaudoise Assurances Arts Committee prize to one of the ten shortlisted artists. The winner will receive a commission for a special arts project that will become part of the Vaudoise Assurances collection.
ELIGIBLE ENTRANTS
The competition is open to anyone working in the visual arts (such as graphic designers, illustrators, painters and photographers), and to students and apprentices of any form of visual art.
Entries must be submitted individually and in the artist’s own name.
KEY DATES
- Competition launched Friday 26 March
- Competition closes Sunday 11 April
- Ten finalists announced Thursday 15 April
- Public vote opens Thursday 15 April
- Public vote closes Wednesday 21 April
- Prizes announced Thursday 22 April
©2021 Montreux Jazz Festival, Marylou Faure, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring
Len is a curator and a contributing writer at Art Plugged, a platform for contemporary art; he also engages in web development, design, and marketing.
