👁️ OPTICAL ILLUSIONS
🐂 The story may have begun 17,000 years ago in Lascaux, where one of our ancestors painted a bull with its legs raised in a cave. An optical illusion, perhaps? Thousands of years later, someone discovered the principle of the camera obscura, and it became clear what had happened millennia earlier. The story continued 400 years before Christ when Plato theorized the allegory of the myth of the cave using a visual trick, namely the shadows of objects projected by a fire behind them onto the wall, again in a cave.
🎞️ Another leap forward of a few thousand years: 25 photographs viewed in the space of a second and here is another optical illusion: cinema!
📊 But what about the percentages offered by statistics that tell us two opposite realities depending on the point of view from which they are read? What about the youthful appearance that cosmetic surgery offers us, regardless of our actual age? What about politicians who manipulate information to make us believe that everything is fine?
⚛️ Despite this, however, we can still enjoy perception games that exploit the characteristics and limitations of our visual system. And we can thank the artists who show us strange worlds by creating ingenious optical illusions.
🔍 Our ignorance can also make us see things we cannot believe, but here knowledge can come to our aid. Some incredible phenomena can be explained by quantum physics, for example, or molecular biology.
📺 In an age that imposes lies as normality, whether they come from the media, politicians’ statements, the world of advertising, or production systems, a world of appearances distances us from a life lived fully in awareness of our choices, distances us from our autonomy of thought and from the possibility of having an impact on society.
🔮 In this review, we entrust the excursus on the thousand optical illusions of our world to satirical cartoonists, to their ability to see through X-rays, to synthesize, to make salacious or humorous judgments, to look at things in a non-conformist way, to read between the lines of apparent reality. Protected by the language of satire, which does not allow censorship and enjoys full freedom of expression, artists have the ability and the task of uncovering the Chinese boxes of appearance for us and opening our eyes, often through the power of humor.
📜 RULES
🏛️ Art. 1
- The contest will identify three winning artworks for the satire/humor category (A) and one in the comics category (B).
- For each category there will be a cash prize.
- The jury will also select approximately 150 artworks that will form an exhibition that will be inaugurated in the course of 2026.
🆓 Art. 2
The participation to the contest is free and opened to italian and international artists from the age of 16.
🎯 HOW TO PARTICIPATE
📝 Art. 3
- Every artist must register by filling and sending, with the artworks, the form attached to the last page of this document.
- Each author can send a maximum of three artworks, with the possibility to join both categories, as long as it’s specified in the form.
- The artworks must be in A4 or A3 (vertical or horizontal) and be sent in JPG or TIFF format with resolution of 300 dpi.
⚖️ Art. 4
- Every artist joining the contest takes responsability for the originality of the artworks and declares to be their author, relieving the Organization from possible requests of reimbursement coming, at any scale, from thirds.
- Artworks that are made with AI are not admitted in the contest.
- The Jury has the chance to take back any prize in case the selected artwork proves to be made with AI or in the case it has been awarded in other competitions.
👥 THE JURY
👩⚖️ Art. 5
- The artworks will be judged by a jury made of members of Studio d’Arte Andromeda and personalities of the world of satire, comics and illustration.
- The decisions of the jury are unquestionable.
📧 Art. 6
The results of the jury selection will be announced to the participants via email.
🏆 PRIZES
🎨 Art. 7
- From all the artworks received will be selected three winners for the satire/humor category and one for the comics category.
- For the satire/humor category there will be a 🥇 First Prize of the amount of 1.000€,
a 🥈 Second Prize of 500€ and a 🥉 Third Prize of 300€.
- For the comics category there will be a 🥇 First Prize of the amount of 1.000€.
- The jury will also signal seven artworks for the satire/humor category and two for the comics category.
- The jury has the possibility of assigning special mentions to worthy artworks.
- The jury will also award the Alessandro Alfonsi Special Prize, of the amount of 300€, in honor of our friend and member who prematurely passed away.
🖼️ THE EXHIBITION
🖨️ Art. 8
For the final exhibition, the Organization will print at its own expenses every panel of the artworks selected from the jury.
📄 Art. 9
- The authors, joining the contest, give to the organization the non exclusive right for printing the artworks on any support to promote the Festival.
- The Organization commits to quote every artist’s name in each case.
⭐ Art. 10
The participation to the contest implies the approval of all the rules included in this
document.
🎭 THEME
Optical illusions
⏳ DEADLINE
15th June 2026
🌍 PARTICIPATION
- The contest is opened to italian and international artists from the age of 16.
- Each artist can send maximum three artworks, not awarded or selected in other contests.
📂 CATEGORIES
A) Satire/Humor - max 3 artworks.
B) Comics - max 3 artworks (each artwork con be made of one or two pages).
📤 SENDING THE ARTWORKS
📧 The artworks must be sent in A4/A3 format and be sent at rassegnatrento@studioandromeda.net
- Minimun resolution of 300 dpi, in JPG o TIFF.
⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTES
Images sent by email must not be over 5MB, for bigger files use www.wetransfer.com
🏆 PRIZES SATIRE/HUMOR CATEGORY
🥇 First Prize: 1.000€
🥈 Second Prize: 500€
🥉 Third Prize: 300€
🎖️ ALESSANDRO ALFONSI SPECIAL PRIZE: 300€.
🏆 PRIZE COMICS CATEGORY
🥇 First Prize: 1.000€
🎉 AWARD CERIMONY AND EXHIBITION
The award cerimony and exhibition will be held in the course of 2026.
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