Lanzarote has been very present in the 1st Edition of the Macaronesian Competition for Young Artists, in which young people from Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cape Verde have participated. Among the winners of the contest there are two award-winning works from Lanzarote, in the categories of "Fiction Short Film" and "Senior Short Story". The story filmed by José Antonio Fontes and Miguel Tejerían under the title "Ismael V.15.3", captivated the jury who awarded him the first prize. For his part, Andés Fajardo Juan won with his story "Samedi soir sur la terre".
In addition, the artist from Conejero José Francisco Hernández Brito and the German resident in Lanzarote, Anne Susanne Lidner, received the "accesit" awards in the categories of "Individual Photography" and "Comic", respectively.
The Pole group, from Madeira, won the award in the pop-rock category after the concert held last Friday in the parking lot of El Almacén, which also featured the finalists Emeth mmmh, Gaf and Motorower, from Lanzarote.
30,000 euros were distributed in prizes
The awards ceremony for the winners of this first edition of the Contest was held at the Castillo de San José, last Wednesday, October 19. The event was attended by the Councilor for Youth and Sports of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Francisca Toledo, the General Director of Historical Heritage, Moisés Plasencia and the head of the project, Jorge Bruno. These three authorities were in charge of presenting the awards.
The presentation was made in Portuguese and Spanish, and was enlivened by a very special multimedia show, in which images of the island of La Gomera were projected while a whistler read some poems accompanied by the timplista Enrique Mateu. The room was full and after the awards ceremony the attendees had a drink on the roof, where they lingered until after one in the morning. 30,000 euros were distributed in prizes, each of them of 2,000 euros, in addition to the so-called "accesit", without financial endowment, which the jury grants when it wants some finalist work to be taken into consideration. All those who are interested can come to the Castillo de San José, where all the winning works are exhibited, except for the musical ones.
A week enjoying the Island
The winners of the contest landed in Lanzarote last Saturday, and throughout this week they have had the possibility of attending various leisure and cultural activities. In the mornings, many of them have chosen to attend the workshops given by renowned professionals, such as the film director Rolando Díaz, within the cycle "Work Shop Silbo Arte". In addition, they have visited some of the tourist centers of the Island, such as the César Manrique Foundation or the Immigrant Museum. And at night the organizers have proposed them to attend the inaugurations of the exhibitions held within the Biennial.
On the other hand, taking advantage of the fact that the Government of the Canary Islands wants to present the "silbo gomero" to UNESCO as Oral and Material Heritage of Humanity and that it is already preparing said candidacy, the organizers of this contest have offered the young creators who are visiting us these days, the possibility that they are the ones who elaborate the promotional video that will be presented before the European institution. In fact, they will meet again next April to continue working on this interesting project.
