A Pile of School Chairs to 'Get Your Head Together' Wins EAC 2025

'Get Your Head Together'. This is the motto and purpose of the winning installation at the Contemporary Art Encounters (EAC) 2025, created by the Murcian artist Eva Mauricio, currently exhibited at the University of Alicante Museum.

The proposal combines triple technique, including drawings, oils, and sculpture. All of this is combined on the walls of the MUA, around an installation of nine used and broken school chairs forming a pyre. All to 'Get Your Head Together'.

Thus, Eva Mauricio has secured the main prize of EAC 2025, endowed with 8,500 euros. The Culture Deputy, Juan de Dios Navarro, the Vice-Rector of Culture, Sports and University Extension, Catalina Iliescu, and the director of Gil-Albert, along with the jury, supported the artist during the award ceremony.

Also to the other creators who make up the winners of this edition. The second place went to the set of collages and photography, 'Transformer' by Alberto Feijóo - awarded with 3,000 euros - and the bronze - of 2,500 euros - to Elio Rodríguez for the textile sculpture 'Leona's Flower'.

The global exhibition also hosts 25 works - including the three winners - one for each year of the EAC, organised by the Juan Gil-Albert Institute along with the University of Alicante.

The selected works encompass various artistic disciplines such as video, installation painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography. These encounters aim to showcase innovative perspectives of different postmodern artistic languages, as well as to promote mechanisms that encourage the meeting and participation of young plastic creators from the province and from around the world.

The exhibition displays pieces by artists Pablo Bellot with 'Black on White N5_Act of Communication N41 (END)'; Beatriz Carbonell, with 'Ignorance'; Lucas Selezio de Souza, with 'Untitled, Plus Ultra series'; Blanca Espasa, with 'Emboss'; María Esteve with 'Geography of Time'; Juan Fuster, with 'The Parables'; Esther Gisbert, 'Drassana with Aixovar II'; and Susana Guerrero, with 'Love Me, Interior of Saint Mary of Alexandria'.

Also selected were Cristóbal Hernández, with 'State'; Abel Jaramillo, with 'Volcanoes in the Hands'; Gala Knörr, with 'The Maba Series (8-11)'; Sergio Luna, with 'Strange Bodies Under My Pillow'; José Vicente Martín, with 'Safari Hunter'; Francisco Mayor, with 'A Landscape and Three Views'; Esther Navarro, with 'Work from the Light Air series'; Luisa Pastor, with 'Contemporary Architectures'; Nuria Pérez, with 'Orange Tapestry'; Guillermo Masedo, with 'You Never Forgave Me That Dean Moriarty Didn't Come to Dinner'; Héctor Prats, with 'Days of Miracle and Wonder'; Luciana Rago, with 'Journey to Manila'; Guibert Rosales, with 'Geography of Power'; and Estefanía Serrano, with 'Two Minutes and Three Seconds'.

The jury, chaired by Juan de Dios Navarro, as a member of the IAC Governing Board, was composed of Remedios Navarro - art historian and MUA technician, Begoña Martínez Deltell - cultural manager and contemporary art gallerist, member of the Valencian Council of Culture and the IAC cultural team, Estefanía Soler Selma - art historian, heritage conservator and director of the IAC Art Department, and Amparo Koninckx, general secretary of the Alicante Provincial Council.