The deadline for submitting works: 8/02/2026.
Works for the competition should be submitted in the form of photos or digital visualizations in
jpg or pdf file format with a resolution of 300 DPI, via the online form:
https://amberif spring 26.exposupport.pl/amberif/award
Jury deliberations: 12–13.02.2026
Deadline for submitting works for the exhibition: 20/03/2026
(Works qualified by the jury for the exhibition will be physically presented at the exhibition in the form of finished objects or prototypes. After the presentation at the AMBERIF Fair, the exhibition will tour Poland and abroad.)
Announcement of the winners and award ceremony: 26.03.2026
Competition Organizer: Gdańsk International Fair Co.,
ul. Żaglowa 11, 80-560 Gdańsk
Competition Curator: Barbara Schmidt
Competition Secretary: Monika Szpatowicz
mobile: +48 695 988 013
e-mail: monika.szpatowicz@amberexpo.pl
Matter has always been more than just a utilitarian material for humans—
it has been endowed with meanings, emotions, and stories. Objects have thus become
amulets, talismans, symbols of memory, bridges between the physical
and spiritual worlds. However, with the development of civilization, our needs and expectations have changed,
and matter has gradually lost its aura of the sacred in favor of tools, technology, and production.
Today—in the digital age, dominated by images, data, and simulations—a
fundamental question resurfaces: what allows matter to continue to move us? To make it
meaningful, unique to us? What magic is hidden within it that enables it to resist the
virtual and regain its meaning and charm?
Amber, whose organic origins, the depth of light, and the inclusions hidden within it make it
a substance suspended between geological time and the human imagination, is
a unique example of matter that has retained a certain magnetism for thousands of years. But
how do we perceive the natural today, in a world dominated by technology? How
should we interpret amber, now that matter is increasingly virtual, processable, and
generative? Where should we look for its uniqueness—in its structure, chemical
and physical processes, or perhaps in the story told by the artist?
The theme "Magic of Matter" aims to provoke artists to reflect on the contemporary relationship
with the material, to creatively explore these unique qualities—this magic of matter, to
experiment at the intersection of craft, art, and technology, where amber can become
not so much a finished raw material as a field of research—a material open to deconstruction
and transformation, to dialogue with metal, light, sound, parametric form, or
algorithmic logic.
The magic of amber can be revealed in response to touch, temperature, and movement; in combinations
with synthetic materials; in forms utilizing 3D printing, photogrammetry, AI, or
augmented reality.
"Magic of Matter" also questions the very definition of material: can it be light?
Shadow? Sound? Data? Intention? Must amber function as a stable element, or
can it become a module, an ephemeral component, the starting point of a process
that changes over time?
We encourage bold formal and conceptual explorations, exploring the essence
of structure, decomposition, connection, and transformation, breaking down classical hierarchies between
the natural and the technological, the soft and the hard, the durable and the ephemeral, and redefining
the traditional perception of jewelry.
We expect designs that not only adorn but also communicate, record, and transform.
In which meaning arises between matter and humanity—in experience, gesture, and
relationship. They reveal the contemporary magic of amber and its future potential.
