FOMAS Group Special Prize | The winners from Arte Laguna Prize 21st edition

THE EXPERIENCE

The Jury would like to begin by expressing its sincere thanks to the 124 artists from 20 countries worldwide who chose to participate in this competition, organized in collaboration with the Arte Laguna Prize and promoted to mark the 70th anniversary of the FOMAS Group.
The quality of the submissions received, the wealth of technical solutions, and the variety of interpretations offered on the theme of the transformation of matter made the selection process particularly challenging. Each work contributed to broadening the reflection on the relationship between art, industry, and innovation, offering original and often surprising perspectives on the journey of steel from heat to form.
The jury had the opportunity to engage with very different approaches: some more closely tied to the material and process dimension, others oriented toward a symbolic, scientific, or conceptual interpretation of the theme. This plurality of languages ​​and sensibilities represented one of the most significant and stimulating aspects of the competition.
The selection of the winning works was therefore the result of a careful evaluation, which took into account not only the artistic and technical quality of the submitted works, but also their ability to interpret the proposed theme in an original, coherent, and personal way.
Our heartfelt thanks go to all the participating artists for sharing their research, talent, and vision, contributing to the success and cultural value of this initiative.

First Prize
Tania Welz – Indra’s Weave: Co-creation

Tania Welz’s work stands out as the winner for its ability to translate the competition theme into a striking visual form, in which art, material, and industrial process find a particularly effective synthesis.
Through a large panel crafted entirely by hand from knitted copper wire, the artist makes the material’s journey from heat to form perceptible, transforming a gesture traditionally associated with textiles into a reflection on the world of metallurgy. Each weave contributes to the construction of a surface that appears simultaneously solid and fluid, evoking the transition from the energy of casting to the precision of the worked material.
Particularly significant is the choice of copper, employed in an unusual and innovative way. A material associated with industry and electrical conduction is reinterpreted as a light and transparent texture, capable of interacting with light and conveying the material’s diverse conditions throughout its transformation.
The suspended surface generates reflections and variations that recall the temperatures and tensions inherent in metalworking. This interpretation also includes a reference to the galvanization process: just as the treatment provides steel with new protection and a new surface identity, the interweaving of the wire gradually builds a complex and layered skin, the result of technical knowledge and precision execution.

The jury appreciated the work’s ability to combine material experimentation, innovation, and formal quality, offering a vivid and complete representation of the proposed theme. Due to the expressive power of the solution adopted and the originality of the use of the material, Tania Welz’s work was recognized as the entry that best interprets the competition.

Second Prize
Paulina Montes – The Shape of Cooling

Paulina Montes’s work “The Shape of Cooling” won second prize for its sensitive interpretation of a specific phase in the transformation of matter: cooling, a suspended moment in which the metal, still raw and not fully stabilized, retains traces of the energy that created it.
Created in acrylic on canvas and developed in the form of a triptych, the work constructs a narrative that leads the gaze through a state of transition. The material is depicted neither in its initial nor final state, but in an intermediate phase made up of settlements, dispersions, and still-visible memories. It is the moment in which the metal has already abandoned the fluidity of incandescent matter, but has not yet reached the cold, smooth, and perfectly defined surface that represents the outcome of the process.
Through stratifications, transparencies, and erosions, the artist evokes the effects that cooling leaves on the material. The painted surfaces seem to retain the signs of forces now attenuated but still perceptible, transforming the canvas into a space in which change continues to manifest itself. The acrylic technique, with its glazes and layering, helps create a perception of controlled instability, suggesting a material still in flux.
Particularly effective is the line of intense color that runs across the three panels like a residue of thermal energy. As it progressively fragments and disperses, it suggests the slow transition from heat to stillness, without the transformation being truly complete. Alongside it, the subtle geometries and sedimented forms evoke the memory of the process, like permanent traces left by change on the material itself.
The jury appreciated the artist’s ability to focus not on the starting point or the final result, but on that delicate state of transition in which the material still retains the signs of its own transformation. For the quality of the pictorial research, the conceptual coherence, and the ability to make cooling visible as an experience of metamorphosis and memory, The Shape of Cooling deserves second prize.

Third Prize
Soukeyna Fall – Forging Dynamics

The work “Forging Dynamics” won third prize for its originality in addressing the theme of the transformation of matter, offering a reading that the jury interpreted as a vision from within the material itself.
Created as a digital work printed on aluminum, the composition recalls the structures of metal alloys and the relationships established between their elements during the transformation phases. Forms that attract, repel, and rearrange one another evoke the invisible dynamics that accompany the action of heat, pressure, and mechanical stress.
The strength of the work lies in its ability to suggest a still-open process. Despite its balanced and defined structure, the composition maintains an internal tension that suggests further possibilities for development. The forms seem suspended between aggregation and separation, as if new connections could still be formed and alter the overall structure of the image.
This dynamic dimension is amplified by the modular repetition of the elements and the balance between geometric order and restrained movement. The result is a reflection on matter as a constantly evolving system, where each configuration represents only one of the many possibilities that the transformation process can generate.
The jury particularly appreciated this interpretation, which shifts the gaze within matter and clarifies the relationships that guide its evolution. Forging Dynamics deserves third prize for its original approach, the quality of its composition, and its coherence with the competition theme.