The jury met on April 18 at the L'Alcora Ceramics Museum, chaired by the mayor, and with the participation of professionals from the artistic and ceramic fields. All of them agreed to highlight the quality of the proposals received in this call.

The CICA 2026 awards have been decided as follows: the first prize, endowed with 7,000 euros, went to Hollowed-out divinity, by Zehan Du (China). The second prize, of 5,000 euros, was awarded to Body poetry, by Mariya Alipieva Lazarova (Barcelona). Finally, the third prize, with 3,000 euros, went to Las trayectorias que una catástrofe dibuja en secreto, by Almudena Lobera (Madrid).

In addition to the main awards, two honorable mentions were granted: one for Equilibrium I, by Marta Armada (Pontevedra), and another for Inner Aureole, by Xiao Daixian (China).

The first prize, sponsored by the L'Alcora City Council, recognized a work that stands out for its meticulous use of technique and its ability to establish a balanced dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity. The second prize, sponsored by the Diputación de Castellón, valued its conceptual nature and the combination of different techniques in a proposal of social denunciation. The third award recognized research on territory and material articulated around ruin and industrial archaeology.

This edition saw the participation of 321 ceramists, of whom 200 were international and 121 national, with a total of 472 works submitted. Of these, 42 will be part of the CICA 2026 exhibition, which can be visited from May 15 to September 6 at the L'Alcora Ceramics Museum.

The city council has once again emphasized the international dimension of the competition as a platform for promoting contemporary ceramics and as a meeting point for artists from different countries, reinforcing L'Alcora's role as a reference point in this cultural and creative field.