NEW YORK, NY.- The new Millenium Paper Airplane Contest and corresponding book by Klara Hobza is a multifaceted artwork inspired by a historic paper airplane contest that took place in 1967 at the Great Hall in what is now the New York Hall of Science. Built by Wallace K. Harrison to display rockets in the 1964 World's Fair, the Great Hall is a secular cathedral of concrete and colored glass; for Hobza's one-day event, this unique location will harbor aircraft of a different scale.

Commissioned by Public Art Fund, the competition is open to the public. Come with your plane or fold it on site! Submissions are welcome for all categories: distance flown, duration aloft, beauty, and spectacular failure. There will also be a surprise category and a special children's division for participants under 13. For people unable to attend the event, airplanes can be submitted to be flown by proxies.

Qualifying airplanes may be folded from letter-size paper, up to 8.5" x 11" (or A4) or smaller, using average weight office paper. Cutting and minor gluing of airplanes is permitted; stapling is not. Detailed information about THE NEW MILLENNIUM PAPER AIRPLANE CONTEST as well as specific instructions for submitting airplanes, event pre-registration, contest rules, and book information may be found at www.publicartfund.org. Further questions about the project may be addressed to paperairplanes@publicartfund.org.

Notable planes and the stories behind their design will be collected in a commemorative book by the artist, THE NEW MILLENNIUM PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK, published by Public Art Fund in spring 2009. The book will consist of airplane designs that can be torn out, folded, and flown, as well as stories by their creators.

Klara Hobza's previous works have focused on the human desire to communicate and explain, often exploring obscure information systems. Much of her work is performance based, and she utilizes various forms of documentation, from photography and drawing to videos, websites and vast archives of ephemera to circumscribe her practice. THE NEW MILLENNIUM PAPER AIRPLANE CONTEST is Hobza's first project to result in a book.

Hobza was born in Plzen, Czech Republic and currently lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 2005. Her work is currently on view in exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and Malmo Kunstmuseum, Malmo.