Announcing the winners of the International Award for young curators
International award for young curators
First edition theme
projects in non-conventional spaces
Announced by
Italian Cultural Office of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano — South Tyrol
Curated by
Denis Isaia
www.bestartpractices.it
The first edition of Best Art Practices for young curators has come to an end. The purpose of the Award, announced by the Italian Culture Department of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (South Tyrol), is to reward the best contemporary art projects that have been completed in the last five years by curators under forty years of age in non-conventional spaces.The Award has achieved excellent international success with 132 participants from the five continents.
The project selection process was carried out collegially by an international Jury, which, besides indicating the reasons for choosing the winning projects, has provided some preliminary considerations on the status of young curatorial projects, of which the Award has proved to be the first catalyst.
The general considerations are as follows: among the critical points observed in many of the submitted projects was the lack of a solid theoretical foundation, which has driven many curators in the last five years to tune their research to the requirements of the cultural industry. This approach, judged negatively, was counterbalanced by the active position of many curators, who, through different types of public involvement, share an interest for activities that fit into the respective social and political contexts.
The jury, composed of Carlos Basualdo (curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art), Marion Piffer Damiani (art critic and independent curator), Letizia Ragaglia (curator of the Museion of Bolzano), Montse Romaní (independent curator), Anton Vidokle (artist and founder of e-flux), Andrea Villiani (curator of the Mambo of Bologna), assigned the prizes as follows:
1st prize (10,000 Euro) to: FRONTERA – Laboratorio Curatorial 060, for the complexity of the themes touched upon and its innovative articulation. Special appreciation was expressed for: social relevance; the ability to involve tradition and the local population in the process of creation and fruition of the submitted works; the innovative nature aimed at surpassing public art practices of the Nineties; the theme and, in particular, the investigation on the frontier question in an area with scarce media attention; the unusual ability to arouse feelings of freedom, imagination and poetry.
2nd prize (3,000 Euro) to: THE PAINTING MUSEUM – Florin Tudor, for the clarity of the curatorial assumptions with respect to the contents proposed, their historic and geographic contextualization and the results achieved. Special appreciation was expressed for: the strong public impact and great media attention; the political and cultural importance in a rapidly evolving social context and the innovative approach to the work that investigates the relation between power and art institutions.
3rd prize (2,000 Euro) to: LIMINAL SPACES – Eyal Danon, Philipp Misselwitz, Galit Eilat, Reem Fadda, for the curators’ ability to organise projects shared in highly problematic areas such as that between Israel and Palestine. Particularly appreciated was the project’s intent to create a discussion platform involving writers, artists and curators from Palestine, Israel and other parts of the world, as well as the curators’ ability to find support for other phases of the project in Europe.
Five mentions awarded ex aequo:
Wilson Diaz Polanco, Ana Maria Millan Strohbach, Jaime Andrés Sandoval Alba, Claudia Patricia Sartia Macias, Juan David Medina Jaramill with the project VI Festival de performance de Cali – Colombia.
Adam Carr with the project En Route: via another route. Jacob Fabricius with the project Sandwiched. Anna Colin with the project Radio Gallery. Emeka Udemba with the project Lagos Open.
Info: www.bestartpractices.it
Press office Best Art Practices, Carlo Simula, +39 0577 22 07 21, press@bestartpractices.it