Grand Prix (2 Works)

(Left)
Work Title: Voz Pública (Public Voice)
Artist: Dora Bartilotti (Mexico City, Mexico)
A participatory art project aiming to amplify voices protesting gender-based violence in Latin American urban areas. It consists of three parts.
The first is an online participatory platform where personal experiences of gender-based violence are shared as anonymous text. The second is an electronic textile that "gives voice and amplifies" stories through a voice synthesizer, creating a physical presence in public spaces. Finally, a series of laboratories called "The Textile Rebellion" aim to collectively create and activate these electronic textiles through performative actions in the streets, while also enabling introspection on the shared experiences.
https://www.youfab.info/2021/winners/public-voice-jp?lang=ja

(Right)
Work Title: the Museum of Edible Earth
Artist: masharu studio (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
What lies behind the tradition of eating earth? Where does edible earth come from? What are the benefits and dangers of consuming soil? How do we humans establish relationships with the environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth is an interdisciplinary project centered around a collection of soil samples eaten by people around the world for various reasons. It physically prompts viewers to question their relationship with the environment and the earth, encouraging a re-examination of knowledge about food and cultural traditions through creative thinking.
https://www.youfab.info/2021/winners/the-museum-of-edible-earth?lang=ja

■ Chief Judge Asa Ito's Overall Commentary

The act of "making" is perhaps facing headwinds right now. The environmental impact of mass production and mass consumption is severe, and the exploitative labor issues associated with manufacturing are also pressing. We may soon enter an era where making is deemed inherently bad.

Precisely for this reason, we wanted to return to the origin of "making" with this year's YouFab Awards. Fundamentally, creating things is an activity situated at the boundary between the internal and external of human society. If we call it a "product," it becomes an object of transaction within human economic activity, but its materials originate from nature, which originally belonged to no one.

As we judged the 335 works submitted from 26 countries and regions, what became clear was the potential of "making" as an activity on this boundary. How can we consider the problems within human society, the "inside," in conjunction with the "outside"? To do so, we must recognize what our convenient lives have depended upon and listen to the voices of those things we have excluded. This is undoubtedly a matter of considering democracy.
(*Excerpt. Full text available on the official website.https://www.youfab.info/2021/winners_jp.html?lang=ja )