Elliot Watson went to Trieste last weekend for the award ceremony celebrating upcoming talent from the creative industries
The port of Trieste, North-Eastern Italy, embraces many cultures, lying as it does at a crossroads of centuries old Latin, Slavic and Germanic trade routes. The arterial roads that, thankfully, bypass the elegant city itself are flooded with lorries with foreign number plates carrying fruit, groceries and lumber into and out of Eastern Europe. The cerulean and otherwise serene Adriatic is occasionally aggravated by passing freightliners or, more likely in mid-July, cruise ships on route to Croatia’s beautiful and fashionable Dalmation coast.
A fitting venue, then, for the 13th annual International Talent Support competition finals. Global brands including Swatch, Diesel, Swarovski and Samsung invited young and up and coming artists to submit fashion collections, accessories designs and original artwork to the competition – the prizes for each category were not only significant financial packages but also the opportunity to have one’s talent nurtured and encouraged during an internship at the corresponding brand.
Finalists were asked to centre their collections on the notion of ‘lucid dreams’ and thus delivered work inspired by the subconscious; the results were colourful, esoteric and compelling.
Highlights included Daniel Ramos Obregon’s arresting series of ceramic body parts, Yasuto Kimura’s fashion collection that channelled the loss of identity felt by those who endure the daily commute by Tokyo Metro and The Swatch Award winner Virginia Burlina whose work honoured the brand’s lasting significance and attachment to contemporary art.
For more information, visit the ITS website
