Kinolino, Dresden's annual film festival for children and young audiences, commissioned Bela to design and build the trophies for its 31st edition. The brief was simple: the trophy should be a pike, the rest was hers to decide. Pikes are not the prettiest fish, but the Hecht names the Hechtviertel, the Dresden neighborhood where the festival is rooted.
Bela built each one by hand, inspired by cartonería, the Mexican tradition of sculpting with layered paper and engrudo paste, giving each pike a real body before adding the cut-paper surface of scales, fins, and face. Every piece is mounted in a gold shadow box with a miniature film clapperboard that names the award category.
Trophies, awards, and other one-off commissions are work we love taking on; if you have one in mind, get in touch.
