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03 May 2024

The press release of the Posterheroes Contest 2024 is now available

Plug, Favini, ITCILO and Fondazione Time2 launch the thirteenth edition of the international social communication contest Posterheroes – ‘Making Mistakes’. The contest invites participants to recognise mistakes as an essential part of human existence and to be captivated by the charm of imperfections.

Deadline: August 17th, 2024.

The thirteenth edition of the international Posterheroes titled “Making Mistakes” is now open. The contest invites graphic designers, illustrators, professionals and non-professionals, to express their creative thoughts through a poster-manifesto. The initiative is promoted by the Associazione Culturale Plug, the paper mill Favini, the International Training Centre ITCILO, and the Fondazione Time2.

In a contemporary performance-oriented society, the obsession with perfection dominates every aspect of life, making mistakes synonymous with weakness and personal failure. Let us challenge the collective aversion to mistakes and promote a more human and authentic vision of existence that embraces imperfections as an essential aspect of our shared humanity and celebrates the transformative power of mistakes.

The contest opens on May 2, 2024, and will close on August 17, 2024. An international jury, composed of visual art and social communication professionals, will select the 40 winning posters. Special mentions sponsored by Favini and the Time2 Foundation are confirmed, with values of €2500 and €1500 respectively. Additionally, even this year, 12 posters will be selected to create the 2025 Calendar produced by Favini and designed by the Cultural Association Plug.

With over 20,000 posters received over its twelve editions, Posterheroes plays a significant role in promoting dialogue and reflection on socio-environmental issues. For further details on the brief and the competition regulations, please visit the website posterheroes.org.

Contemporary society has taken the cult of self and introspection to the extreme, along with the ostentation of performance, at any cost, as the only possible and necessary path, – declares Silvia Barbero, President of the Cultural Association Plug. – “‘Success and happiness depend solely on you,’ ‘If you haven’t succeeded, it’s because you haven’t tried hard enough,’ ‘You can achieve any result you want’… these statements offer motivation and a sense of opportunity on one hand, but on the other, they risk oppressing and generating anxiety in those who don’t identify with a ‘winning’ model. The pursuit (or condemnation) of uniqueness has the opposite effect of conforming in an attempt to be different. Let us then embrace error not only as an inevitable part of the learning process, but also as a powerful catalyst for growth, innovation, and authenticity. Through errors, we learn to build resilience, which is fundamental in today’s dynamic world and in the construction of new reference models for tomorrow.

Being promoters of the Posterheroes competition for Favini means stimulating creative expression through the lens of current social themes, – states Favini CEO Eugenio Eger. – With this edition titled ‘Making Mistakes,’ we aim to normalize a fundamental element of the human experience: imperfection. For us, mistakes represent opportunities for growth, necessary steps towards the future and innovation. With Posterheroes, we aim to inspire deep reflection within the global creative community on this crucial theme. We are eager to appreciate the illustrations that will express the unique visions of each participant’s creative thinking.

We are happy to continue this visual journey with Posterheroes and partners. – says Tom Wambeke, ITCILO Chief of Learning Innovation – As a global learning institution focused on Innovation, “making mistakes” is part of the every creativity process. For us the word FAIL does not have a negative connotation but we see it as F.A.I.L., the abbreviation of First Attempt in Learning. We are looking forward to all the artistic contributions who will shape a new promising narrative that will support innovation and creativity worldwide.

The experience that people with disabilities undergo is one of daily coexistence with a dominant ableist culture, – declares Samuele Pigoni, General Secretary of Fondazione Time2. – Ableism is a form of discrimination and violence rooted in the idea that a certain type of body, mind, or way of relating is considered normal, while characteristics diverging from this norm are somehow seen as indicative of ‘error.’ Building upon this notion of conformity, norm, and conversely error, various belief systems, practices, and social structures that favor nondisabled individuals at the expense of those with any form of disability are deemed normal and ordinary. This can manifest in various forms, such as limited accessibility to services, social isolation, and discriminatory hiring practices. Ableism constitutes a form of oppression, and the stories of everyday suffering and reduced opportunities are countless. In this new edition of Posterheroes, we would like to encounter artworks that, by representing a different idea, help us in constructing a path towards consideration and coexistence among differences.