Bibiana found 17 “most beautiful books in Slovakia”. The boycott of publishers felt the competition

In the competition for the most beautiful book of Slovakia this year was half the number of books compared to last year. More significant publishing houses, except for Ikar and Slovart, decided to boycott the competition.

In the jubilee year, the jury chose the prize from what it had. Some award -winning books would probably not get among the laureates last year. Although they may have had remarkable illustrations, the overall graphic processing was lagging behind.

The level of this year’s awards are saved by institutions such as the Slovak National Museum, the East Slovak Museum and the Slovak National Theater, which sent them to the competition.

The main awards were awarded to the book Štikraf and other rarely published by the Civic Association Rare Diseases, the Book of Twenty-four guards of Slovakia illustrated by Ján Kurinc, the Bibliofilian edition of 90 drawings of Miroslav Cipár and the book 100 years of the Slovak National Theater 1920-2020.

Minister of Culture opened the award of the awards for SNS Martina Šimkovičováwho responded to the recent protests in front of the Ministry called Conduct, Culture falls!

« I would like to thank the director that such beautiful events are taking place, even though someone still undermines my or its authority, » she said in the premises of Martinea at the Cathedral of Sts. Martin in the neighborhood of Bibiana. The Minister left in the middle of the event.

The director of Bibiana Petr Flach also touched on the publishing boyfriend and the fact that the competition returned to its original form this year. It was previously reformed by former director Zuzana Liptáková.

Boycott of publishing houses

More than a hundred book publications entered the competition of the most beautiful books of Slovakia 2024. They were evaluated by a jury from illustrators, graphic designers, art theorists, polygraphs, chaired by academic painter Igor Piačka.

The winning collection of 17 book titles will be part of the traveling exhibition. In addition to it, the jury also awarded statutory prizes, which are also associated with the financial evaluation.

Many book publishers announced a boycott of the competition at the end of January. It was stimulated by the BRAK publishing house, which won the most prizes, ej publishing and literary bastion last year. Added Artforum, Inaque, the Portuguese Institute, Monokl, Absynt, Association of Illustrators, Black Holes, Capital, KK Bagala, Bublina publishing house and other smaller publishing houses.

« Like other cultural institutions, established by the Ministry of Culture, Bibiana is also thanks to the current management of the cultural department in the process of decay, » they wrote in a statement.

The biggest problem was the director Flach, who succeeded in the competition without a public hearing, which she participated as the only one and her professional qualification was not proven. Flach is a friend of Minister Šimkovičová.

« We are convinced that such profiling is not enough to lead Bibiana, as evidenced by the massive departure of professional employment in 2024, the resignation of Bibiana partners and the unclear development of the long -term projects of the institution, » the protesters wrote in a statement.

Have returned categories

Last year, the competition introduced a new statute, which was more than necessary, according to publishers. The jurors rated the book as one whole regardless of the genre. The jury, whose part had to be from abroad, chose 20 nominated books and determined the 10 most beautiful books of Slovakia.

The new director, who started just before the last year’s awards, disagreed with the reformed form of the competition.

« More than visual processing, the content with the flavor of ideology was evaluated and it happened that the first time Bibiana did not appreciate the children’s book, » she said at this year’s handover. The jury then assessed that the level of children’s titles was weaker.

Already at last year’s handover of Vienna in the Slovak National Gallery, there was concern about how long the new form of the competition will be maintained.

This year the status of the competition has changed again and the books were again evaluated by category. In addition to children’s books, they appreciated fiction, books on fine arts and pictorial publications, scientific and scientific literature and bibliophilia and author books. In addition, they also appreciated several jobs of secondary school students.

The missing publishing houses were especially felt in the category of fiction, where the jury chose only two books from Ikar.

At the same time, the new statute of the competition is written about the winning collection of 20 book titles, the jury awarded only 17.