We have pretended to be quiet in the past few months, but the truth is that the fact that we chose FLOP as the theme of the contest a little troubled us. All right, we are all here to say that failures should not demoralize; that great successes come from equally great flops; that by making mistakes one learns and other nonsense-we mean sacrosanct, wise and judicious reflections. However, if the contest had been attended by no one, or few, in short, if the contest had really been a flop, we would not have taken it so well…
Fortunately, this first phase of the contest was not a flop, we may still stumble in the next phases (selection and exhibition), but at least as far as participation is concerned, failure has been averted. A total of 916 artists participated in the contest with as many illustrations, and the time has finally come to share them with you, having finished cataloging and now publishing them online these days.
The works are posted in random order, an order that changes every two hours to give all images an equal chance to be viewed. We invite you to look at all 916 flops and leave a comment on your favorite illustrations (note: comments are not votes; voting for the Popular award will begin on March 26).
What happens now?
A few updates on the continuation of the competition:
By March 25, 2026, the names of the 52 illustrators selected for the exhibition will be announced.
Voting for the People’s Choice Award will begin on March 26, 2026. Voting, we remind you, concerns only the 52 selected authors.
The opening of the exhibition, scheduled forApril 11, 2026 at the Violin Museum (Cremona), will also be the concluding moment of the competition: both the winner of the Popular Prize and the winner of the Critics’ Prize awarded by the jury will be announced on that day.
