Five finalists from the ranks of visual artists up to the age of 35 were selected by an international jury for the 31st edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020. They include Jakub Choma, artistic duo Anna Slama & Marek Delong, Marie Tučková, Jiří Žák and the Extrasensory-Aesthetics Research Working Group including Jan Kolský, Vojtěch Märc, Matěj Pavlík and Peter Sit. Artist Alma Lily Rayner, originally selected for the past edition, joined this year’s edition as well. The collective exhibition of the finalists and the exhibition of the international guest artists is held at Ostrava’s PLATO gallery for the first time in the Award’s history.
The jury consisting of Vjera Borozan, art historian and theorist, teacher based in Prague, Czech Republic (Head of the Jury), Zdenka Badovinac, director of Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, Slovenia, João Laia, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland, Lenka Klodová, artist, head of the Studio of Body Design, Faculty of Arts, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic and Laurel Ptak, director of Art in General, New York, United States, examined over 80 portfolios sent in by artists from the Czech art scene. The final selection represents a broad variety of media and theoretical approaches ranging from material approaches to sculpture, object, drawing and painting through multimedia installations to social engagement and theoretical-scientific research practice.
“The criteria the jury had in mind when selecting this year’s finalists included originality, consistency and high quality as well as aspects of social sensitivity. We are happy to welcome artists who trust methods of artistic research and combine visual arts with scientific and philosophical disciplines,” says the jury statement among other things.
For the first time in the Award’s history, the final exhibition of the 31st edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020 does not have a winner based on the decision of the participating artists who refuse the principle of competition. Thanks to this, the same space and attention should be given to all of them and the audience will be able to fully concentrate on their newly emerging works of art, without the need to compare them with each other. This year’s symbolic ceremony for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020 took the form of an all-day symposium. A rich program was offered and the event was broadcasted live on the ČT art website.
The artists work in various media and employ diverse approaches ranging from material approaches to sculpture, object, drawing and painting through multimedia installations to social engagement and theoretical-scientific research practice. The featured works include short films, complex sculptural environments, audiovisual installations and environments for the creation and activities of a support platform for survivors of sexual violence and other forms of abuse and oppression.
A discussion and performative program and other accompanying programs are being prepared, including babysitting or guided tours for the blind.
The international guests of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020 are Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, a Berlin-based artistic duo working together since 2007. In collaboration with Boudry and Lorenz, we prepared a European premiere of their new work (No) Time co-produced by Jindřich Chalupecký Society, Mediacity Seoul, Frac Bretagne and CA2M Madrid.
In (No) Time, four performers experiment with the movements that haunt them. The spectrum of unfulfilled past or future desires is transformed into choreographic elements.
