NEWS
WHA 2021
The invitation to the competition has started.
Participation in the cartoon competition is reserved for a limited number of selected artists
and is therefore not open to entrants other than the cartoonists, caricaturists and professional illustrators indicated by the organisation.
For this reason, the competition rules and participation form will not be published on the website, as they will be sent only to the invited artists.
The cartoon competition will be divided into two sections:
A) First section: “Cartoon”
“THE POISONED PLANET”
(Environmental pollution)
Artworks without words are preferable. If it is essential to include a joke, the English translation must be written at the bottom of the artwork.
B) Second section: “Caricature (humor portrait)”
FREE THEME
Best works realized in the last year.
2020 Awards Ceremony
The fifth edition of the World Humor Awards, despite the conditioning due to the pandemic for Covid 19, saw a further increase in participation with over 250 artists who from 71 countries around the world sent their works to submit to the evaluation of the international jury chaired by Guido De Maria. The competition, as usual, is divided into two sections: Cartoon, this year on the theme “Water, source of health” and Caricature, a free theme.
Due to the difficulties of Covid which arose for international travel, not all the winning authors, especially foreigners, were able to attend the award ceremony which, introduced by a pleasant musical interlude by the group “Il Sogno”, took place in the prestigious setting of the Sala delle Caryatids in the Palazzo dei Congressi.
Start with special rewards. The first recognition went to Bruno Bozzetto who collected the “Buduàr Prize” conferred by the entire editorial staff of the online magazine.
Following Guido Silvestri, aka Silver, (absent, contacted by phone) “Humor in Comics Award” and Claudio Onesti, aka Clod, “Rino Montanari Award” reserved for Italian authors. Giuseppe Gardenghi, president of FITeL Emilia-Romagna, awarded these two special prizes.
For the Cartoon section, the first prize went to the Chinese Qiang Liu, who sent a video of thanks and greetings, hoping to be present on a future occasion, as brilliantly translated by the host. Second prize to the Hicabi Demirci (Turkey), third prize to the Italian Virginia Cabras, but resident in Dublin, absent for family reasons and intervened by telephone. Still for Cartoon, five awards of excellence: Christine Traxeler, Trax (France) and Andrea Pecchia (Italy) and three absent Toso Borkovic (Serbia) – Keyvan Varesi (Iran) – Elena Zheleznyak (Ukraine). The prizes in the Cartoon section were awarded by Adriano Fava, President of EmiliAmbiente who motivated the collaboration for this year’s edition.
Pasquale Gerace, councilor for culture of the Municipality of Salsomaggiore, intervenes at the delivery of the prizes for the Caricature section. The first prize goes to Regina Vetter (German-speaking Switzerland), the second to the Spaniard Ernesto Priego (absent, but contacted by phone), the third prize to Leonardo Cannistrà (Italy).
Special Guest of the World Humor Awards 2020 a true excellence. The Serbian artist, but resident in Lucca for twenty years, Gradimir Smudja, unfortunately absent due to a domestic accident the day before, as he explained during the phone call.
Brief speech by the writer Giancarlo Governi, present in the room, who received the Prize for humor in literature dedicated to Guareschi, awarded to Roncole Verdi by Giovannino’s heirs.
The conclusions and greetings of the commissioner Gerace close the awards ceremony, before moving on to the Sala delle Colonne to see all the works on display.
2020 Special Guest GRADIMIR SMUDJA
Gradimir Smudja (born in Novi Sad, 1956) is a Serbian author, cartoonist and painter based in Lucca, (Italy).
He left his home country in 1994 because he wasn’t happy with the regime of the time. He first worked at a gallery in Switzerland for a while, before moving to Italy, where he produced his first comic album entitled: “Vincent & Van Gogh”, which was published by Editions Delcourt in 2003.
In this homage to the famous Dutch painter, Smudja showed a great talent for reinterpreting Van Gogh’s vibrant style. A second book of this series was then published in 2010.
Smudja earned much acclaim for his 2004 series “Le Cabaret des Muses” about the French painter Toulouse-Lautrec, which has been translated and published in Dutch, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Italian and Chinese. Other four volumes were published under the title “Le Cabaret des Muses” by Editions Delcourt since 2005.
In 2009 Smudja participated in the book ‘Bob Dylan Revisited’, an homage to Dylan with lyrics in comics format by Gradimir Smudja, Lorenzo Mattotti, Francois Avril, Dave McKean and several other artists. 
Gradimir deals with art in general (including a variety of other painters such as Bruegel, Gauguin, Leonardo, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, El Greco, Rembrandt,
Vermeer…) in the series ‘Au Fil de l’Art’ (volume I & II), that he started with his daughter Ivana in 2012.
In 2018 and 2019 he worked on a two-volume fairy tale story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entitled: “Mausart”.
He is currently busy with his new project “Miles & miles” a homage to the almighty American track and field athlete Jesse Owens.
WHA 2020
The invitation to the competition has started.
Participation in the cartoon competition is reserved for a limited number of selected artists
and is therefore not open to entrants other than the cartoonists, caricaturists and professional illustrators indicated by the organisation.
For this reason, the competition rules and participation form will not be published on the website, as they will be sent only to the invited artists.
The cartoon competition will be divided into two sections:
A) First section: “Cartoon”
“Water, source of health”
Artworks without words are preferable. If it is essential to include a joke, the English translation must be written at the bottom of the artwork.
B) Second section:“Caricature (humor portrait)”
Free Theme
Best works realized in the last year.
2019 – Awards Ceremony
Palazzo dei Congressi di Salsomaggiore Terme
Taverna rossa e Sala delle Colonne – Saturday, August 31 2019
The success of the fourth edition of the “World Humor Awards” is first of all that of the continuous increase in the participation in the competition by the authors. In fact over 200 artists from 62 countries of the world have sent their works in the two sections themed drawing and caricature.
After three very successful editions at the Baistrocchi Spa this year, thanks to the special interest in the initiative by the councilor for culture Dr. Pasquale Gerace, the event had the contribution of the municipal administration of Salsomaggiore Terme which made the premises available. in the congress building, the mythical “Taverna rossa” for the awarding and the “Sala delle colonne” for the exhibition of about three hundred drawings in competition.
The dott. Gerace intervened at the awards ceremony delivering the prizes to the winners of the caricature section and special prizes, while for the theme design “50 years of the moon 1969-2019” the awards were presented by a distinguished guest, the dott. . Tommaso Ghidini, head of the Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division of the European Space Agency (ESA).
WELCOME!
The winning authors are hosted by the association Lepidus.it which organizes the competition.
For other authors, not winners, but who have sent the works in competition,
and wish to participate at the awards ceremony and visit the exhibition,
the organization has agreed the daily prices of stay.
Per person
40 € stay with breakfast
55 € half board
65 € full board
For two people
70 € stay with breakfast
To book, preferably by 15 August,
send email to:
accettazione@termebaistrocchi.it
in copy to:
lepidus@lepidus.it
or call at no. +39 0524 574411
stating that you are participating in the World Humor Awards
Welcome!
(Italiano) Premio Guareschi 2019 assegnato ad Andrea Vitali
Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.
World Humor Awards, new location
This year, thanks to the agreements with the Municipality of Salsomaggiore, the exhibition moves into the restored Tommasini salons.
The event in the new prestigious location, while maintaining the characteristics tested in the first editions, intends to pass from an exclusive circle of authors to a wider public looking for greater involvement in the city.
The fixed points of the event remain however the inauguration of the 2019 edition exhibition and the award ceremony with the presence of the winners and the jury in Salsomaggiore Terme
Subsequently and in any case by the end of the year the exhibition, in collaboration with the Regional Employees’ Club, will be re-proposed in Bologna in locations still to be defined (Sala Borsa, Palazzo d’Accursio, Legislative Assembly Hall …).
The 2019 exhibition, together with those of previous years, remains available for other locations that request it.
“50 years of the moon” is the theme proposed for the 2019 theme design while the free theme for the caricature section has been left.
The invitations to the selected authors were sent at the beginning of January and the deadline for the delivery of the works is fixed at the end of April.
The jury will then evaluate the works received to define the final ranking and deliver it to the organization that must provide for the consequent convening of the winners and to organize their travel and hospitality.
The exhibition of the works at Tommasini will be indicatively from August 26th to September 8th with the awards ceremony scheduled for Saturday, August 31st in the late afternoon.
We foresee important moments and spaces with the authors who design for the public.
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