Magdalena 2008

This weekend (15-17.5.) I was attending the Magdalena festival held in Maribor. It is a festival of creative communication which is addressing especially the younger creative generation (-30 years). I sent some of my recent works, even tough I knew they were not the “wining material” but I wanted some feedback from the crowd and it worked.

Otherwise was this years Magdalena a bit low level in comparison with earlier festivals. OK, the lectures were interesting and well prepared, but the program should be announced earlier and should be better organized. Perhaps that’s why there were only 400 and something works and relatively small number of participants. And there was only one creative brief (Promote use of condoms), which could also be a reason for low participation.

AND THE WORKS?

There were some great works and some really creative ideas, but I think that works on the creative brief were not nearly as good as expected. Because many of them were not following the brief, even though they were well executed. That’s why there was only one winner on the brief and only one special mention.

In other categories we have seen some really good ideas, even tough some of them didn’t even make it to the final. The jury has picked up good works, but some of them are… well who am I to judge. Instead of judging or praising the winners, here are some works. ;

AWARDS

The winners definitely had an amazing idea and a well done execution, even tough it could be done even better. But still, a big applause for Dora Budor and Maja Cule.

Among the Golden bra awards I think there could be some changes. For example the music video was not really a state of the art, and the video from Aljoša Bagola (& Nenad Cizl) for Amnesty was really in a higher league than everything else. If you want to check all the awards and finalists go to www.magdalena.org.

CONCLUSION

This years Magdalena should be something special (it was the 10th) with great lectures and amazing works. It was great, creative and inspiring but let’s hope next year it will be even better, fuller and richer with quantity and quality.

And some of my favourite works: