Meet Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 medal design winner Dante Akira Uwai

Akira Uwai's creation 'A Sparkling Future' will feature on the medals at Gangwon 2024 after the Brasilia-based architect's design was chosen from a record 3,000-plus entries.

5 minBy Gustavo de Araujo Longo and Andrew Binner
Gangwon 2024 medal

The medal design competition for the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 was won by Brazilian artist Dante Akira Uwai.

After six weeks and over 3,000 submissions to the International Olympic Committee competition, Akira Uwai's creation - 'A Sparkling Future' - was chosen by a panel of judges including Olympian Laurenne Ross, former winner Zakea Page, IOC Young Reporters, Young Leaders, and Gangwon 2024 ​Youth Supporters last April.

Akira Uwai's victory means his design will feature on the medals for Gangwon 2024 which will be awarded in the Republic of Korea from 19 January to 1 February.

Art has always been integral to the 27-year-old architect who was born in Sao Paulo and brought up in Brasilia.

"I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, since I was a kid it was my favourite hobby. I remember being scolded a lot in the classroom for drawing in the classroom when I shouldn’t have been!" he told Olympics.com.

“I will cherish this for the rest of my life.”

Akira Uwai played tennis and swim competitively at school and considers sport to be key part of his identity.

As such, he has one particularly fond memory of the Olympic Games Rio 2016 in his homeland.

"One of the memories that touches me the most is that of (Brazilian runner) Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima, of him finishing the marathon with bronze after all the mishaps he had to go through."

"This competition lit that flame again"

However, the artist quit sport momentarily in order to focus on securing a place at university.

While art would have been his first choice of degree, the Brazilian chose architecture for practical reasons.

Little did he know that the architecture course would benefit his art career too.

“Ever since I was a child, I had a lot of doubts about whether I should pursue the art field or not. I live in Brazil, it's very difficult to make a living from art here. That's why I studied architecture and not art, to open more possibilities in the job market,” he revealed.

“When I got into architecture and started to learn more about art, I started to practise painting and sculpture. I began to realise that this love goes beyond drawing.

“There's a phrase that says, 'What differentiates an artist from other people is not talent or an innate thing, but a burning need to create.' I think that's something I carry with me a lot. When I spend a long time without making art or drawing something, I feel bad, I feel down.

“I was kind of lost, not knowing what to do, and when I saw this opportunity, I thought, 'This is it! I'm going back to doing what I really like.' This competition lit that flame again and for me it did a lot of good as an artist.

“Having this recognition is like a sign that I am going the right way, that what I nurtured for so many years is really what is worth following."

Gangwon 2024 winning medal design: 'Grow together, shine forever'

Akira Uwai’s winning Gangwon 2024 medal design is a geometric interpretation of the motto 'Grow together, shine forever'.

Vertical lines are used to convey the idea of growth, while random elements created through cutouts and texture changes represent the diverse group of people who participate in the Olympic Games.

The variety of forms demonstrates diversity and how we can all contribute in different ways to peace and coexistence, while the polished finishes create dynamic little sparks of light, symbolising our desire to overcome ourselves and make positive changes in the world.

“When you read the Olympic values, you realise that sport is the means, but it is not the end. Victory is not the end. The end is the union of people, respect, even more nowadays, this becomes more important," said Akira Uwai.

“I thought of two guidelines. The first is that I didn't want the medal to be a frame for a painting, just there to be looked at. I wanted it to be treated like a sculpture. You can pick up the sculpture, see it from different angles. You feel the texture of the sculpture, and I think the medal has a lot of that.

“Another thing was also working on materiality. In architecture, we learn that you don't sell a building just by looking at it. You must enter the building, you must touch the building to really understand how the material works. The medal is made of metal, which can be given various finishes, polished, matte, and different textures. I wanted this polished part to be the protagonist of the medal."

Judge Zakea Page, the New Zealander who won the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 medal design competition, was impressed with Akira Uwai’s combination of Olympic values and Korean heritage.

"The design is a worthy winner and a beautiful interpretation of the values of the Youth Olympic Games. To me, it is reminiscent of the traditional paper lanterns that are a hallmark of South Korea's celebration, hanging like canopies around temples and in parades... even dotted throughout the streets of Seoul.

"According to Buddhist belief, lanterns symbolise wisdom as they bring light to the world, very much so befitting the game's motto, 'Grow together, shine forever'.”

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