Schools Competition
4th Edition

The Vicino/Lontano cultural association, in collaboration with the science high school "Niccolò Copernico", which has been selected to host the 2008 event, announces the fourth edition of the Schools Competition, which accompanies the Terzani Literary Prize.

Aims
The purpose of the competition is to promote awareness amongst the younger generation of ‘other’ people, cultures and histories, an awareness that goes beyond the stereotypical representations put forward by the media, to stimulate their curiosity and desire to understand other realities so that they might be better able to understand their own.

In a 2002 interview, Tiziano Terzani,  the journalist and writer who inspired the Competition, looking back on the quest that had occupied his life and taken him from China to Japan, from Russia to Vietnam and to India, had this to say: “Life is a strange and wonderful thing… It is only when one becomes old and looks back, that one sees that there is a thread connecting everything together. For me the thread was curiosity, the curiosity to understand the ‘other’… the urge to go where there was something that was not ‘mine’, to understand, to become aware […] My instinct has always been to understand who those ‘others’ were.

Eligibility criteria

The competition is open to all first grade and second grade pupils attending primary and secondary schools within the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. For pupils in primary school or the first level of secondary school, competition entries must be submitted as a group or class, whereas for higher level secondary school pupils entrance is open to both  individuals and groups or classes.

The competition is divided into two sections.

Section one is open to primary school pupils and those attending the first grade of secondary school. Classes or groups may submit the following entries:
• Written texts: stories, letters, imaginary interviews, theatre scripts, etc.     
• Visual images: drawings, photographs, banners, murals, collage, etc.
• Multimedia materials: video, hypertexts,  etc.
• Musicali productions

Section two is open to pupils attending the second grade of secondary school. Pupils, either in classes or groups or  as individuals, may submit the following entries:
 • Written texts: stories, letters, real or imaginary interviews, theatre scripts, travel reportage, discursive essays on topics related to globalization, comparative reviews on the writer Tiziano Terzani and/or0 another author of their choice or of a film which touches on themes relevant to the life or written works of Tiziano Terzani, etc.
• Visual images: drawings, photographs, banners, murals, collage, etc.
• Multimedia materials: video, hypertexts,  etc.
• Music productions

How to Enter

Schools wishing to participate in the competition should submit their application by letter, fax or email (subject: Tiziano Terzani Schools Competition Entries) to the Vicino/Lontano Association (via Crispi, 47 - 33100 Udine; Tel. +39 0432 287171, Fax. +39 0432 201408, vicino.lontano@tiscali.it) by no later than 02 February 2008, clearly indicating the school, class, group or individual wishing to enter together with the name of the teacher concerned.

Participating schools must ensure that all pupils’ work for the competition is submitted no later than 19 April 2008 in accordance with the instructions set out in the letter which will be sent to all participating schools. 

From the entries received, the jury (the members of which will include a teacher from the host school, prof. Daniele Tonelli, prof.ssa Daniela Perini, the cinema critic Giorgio Placereani, a representative from the "Calendidonna" association and a member of the Vicino/Lontano Cultural Association) will select two prize winners for each category from each section of the competition. The Schools Competition jury may also decide to give Special Mentions to noteworthy entries.

A meeting will be organized at the end of January between representatives of the various schools entering the competition to finalise the terms of participation in greater detail.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Gianni Cianchi
Vicino/Lontano Cultural Association 
Tel.: +39 0432 287171
Cell.: +39 335 6856223
E-mail: giannicianchi@libero.it

Daniele Tonelli
Tel.: +39 0432 505604 
Cell.: +39 338 9375825
E-mail: tonelli.daniele@virgilio.it

Daniela Perini
Tel.: +39 0432 478344
Cell.: +39 338 7510291