Second edition of the Teresa Barba Critical Writing Competition

Antoni Tàpies. Cartes per a la Teresa, 1974. Lithography. © Comissió Tàpies / VEGAP. Photography: © Lluís Bover, 2024.

The Museu Tàpies is announcing the second edition of the art criticism text competition aimed at students from upper primary school to university degrees and higher education courses.

The aim is to enhance the students’ critical thinking through a dialogue with the work of Antoni Tàpies that will inspire them to analyse today’s society and the world around us; to encourage students to express themselves through writing; and to connect a young public with the work, thought and concerns of Antoni Tàpies, which are unquestionably a bridge to thinking about our own times and a vindication of a less anthropocentric worldview.

The competition starts from the idea of written art criticism based on a personal interpretation of the work of art counterposed with the present day. It is about making the selected work dialogue with elements from the outside world. Art criticism is, therefore, an attitude or position towards life that interrogates and questions everything that happens around us.

The evaluation of the texts will take into account: linguistic, expressive and analytical maturity; a free interpretation of the work of Antoni Tàpies; and the connections made between that work and the social, cultural and political context of the moment.

BASES

PARTICIPANTS

• Students who, during the 2023–24 academic year, are attending the last year of primary school, up to secondary school and Baccalaureate level, and intermediate vocational training.
• Participation may be individual or collective, bearing in mind only one prize will be awarded per category.

WORK

• Each student or group may submit a single original and unpublished text, written in Catalan, Spanish or English and which has not received a prize in any other competition.
• The text must be between 200 and 1,000 words in length.
• It is essential that the text has a title and specifies to which work or group of works by Antoni Tàpies it refers.

PREPARATION

The call for the competition will be accompanied by meetings with teaching staff interested in participating, leading to visits to the Museum with their students. In order to further facilitate a closer knowledge of the work of Antoni Tàpies, the Museu Tàpies will be organising discussions at the Museum, sending information, etc., thus providing full support to enable the school to make the competition a core of its curriculum. The Museu Tàpies will also be providing three training modules spread throughout the year aimed at teaching staff. These modules are designed to help teachers articulate the competition in the classroom, while deepening an understanding of the work of the artist and the need to contextualise it the present. In addition, people over the age of sixteen who want to visit the museum or library to prepare for the competition can request free access by sending an email to: concurs@museutapies.org 

REGISTRATION AND DOCUMENTATION

Students’ texts should be sent by email to: concurs@museutapies.org

Indicate in the subject box: 1st art criticism competition for students at the Museu Tàpies.

The following documentation must be attached:

-File with the details of the student or group of students, including: name, age, academic year, name of the school and name and contact of the reference teacher.

-Both the texts and the file must be sent in PDF format.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

May 11, 2025.

AWARDS

A total of three prizes of vouchers of 300 € in books for each of the following three categories:

• Prize of 300 € for the winner of the upper primary level, and publication of the text.
• Prize of 300 € for the winner of the secondary school level (ESO), and publication of the text.
• Prize of 300 € for the winner of Baccalaureate and vocational training level, and publication of the text.
• Prize of  €300 for the winner of university degrees and higher education training courses and publication of the text.

At the end of the competition there will be a public presentation of the winning and finalist texts that will take place at the Museu Tàpies, with a reading of the winning texts, and the jury’s comments. This will be followed by the presentation of the awards and of a publication including the selected writings.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The jury of the evaluation committee will take into account the following aspects:

• Literary quality of the text: up to 25 points
• Interest and originality of the critique or reflection proposed in the text: up to 25 points
• The extent to which the reflections connect with the work of Antoni Tàpies: up to 20 points
• The degree to which the text connects the work of Antoni Tàpies with current events: up to 30 points

JURY

The jury will be formed by one member of the Associació Catalana de Crítica d’Art (ACCA), as a specialist art critic, as well as four media journalists, both staff and freelance. 

· Caterina Almirall, curator and teacher. Member of the ACCA.

· Teresa Sesé, editor of the art section of La Vanguardia.

· Laia Manonelles Moner, PhD in art history from the Universitat de Barcelona, ​​teacher of the Art Criticism subject of the Art History degree at Universitat de Barcelona.

· Albert Mercadé, president of the ACCA, art critic, curator and historian.

· Maria Palau, editor of the culture section of the newspaper El Punt Avui.

· Antoni Ribas Tur, visual arts and culture editor of Diari ARA

SELECTION OF THE WINNING ENTRIES

The jury’s verdict will be made public on June 10, 2025 on the website of the Museu Tàpies: museutapies.org

The award ceremony will take place on December 10, 2025, at the Museu Tàpies. All members of the jury will be invited to attend, together with leading professionals in the sector. The media and all agents involved in the contest will also be invited. The event will consist of the public reading of the winning texts, followed by the jury’s comments.

__

Resolution of the first edition of the Teresa Barba Critical Writing Competition

The jury of the First Teresa Barba Critical Writing Competition, composed of Caterina Almirall, Roberta Bosco, Joan Burdeus, Frederic Montornés, Antoni Ribas Tur and Eva Vázquez, met in person at the Museu Tàpies, on Friday, June 7, 2024, and made a selection of contestants.

You can download the document with the resolution AT THIS LINK.

The award ceremony for the first edition of the contest will take place on December 11, 2024 at the Museu Tàpies.