ESSL AWARD 2005 for Central and Southeast Europe
Project management:: Sini Zein, Andreas Hoffer
11 Nov 2005 – 29 Jan 2006
Awarded for the first time ever in 2005 by the Essl Collection and bauMax, the Essl Award promotes art students at partner academies in The Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slowenia and Slovakia. In each country, an international jury selected two prizes from more than 300 submissions in the media of painting, video, photography and sculpture (main prize EUR 5.000, second prize EUR 2.000). The Essl Award 2005 is organized under the honorary presidency of Dr. Erhard Busek, Chairman of the Institute of the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM). In future, the Essl Award will be announced biennially.
On the 11th November, the Essl Collection will be the venue of an exhibition of all the prize-winners, who will be on show for the first time in a group exhibition. In addition, Prof. Karlheinz Essl invited two more artists on the basis of the convincing quality of their works to participate in this exhibition (Special Invitations).
Participating Artists:
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Croatia: Miroslav Mirt (1st Prize), Nikola Kovač (2nd Prize) |
Miroslav Mirt: Recycle Bin (2005) |
Nikola Kovač: Koornament system (2004) |
Miroslav Mirt and Nikola Kovač thematize in their works the borders between art, kitsch and décor: Mirt employs radical examination methods and a strict, scientific conceptual order. As a basis for his confrontational analysis, kitsch works serve as representatives/surrogates for "high-quality" art.
The digital prints and luminous boxes by Kovač represent the wish to anchor the ornament as a fixed element in contemporary art, without employing it merely for decorative purposes. The accumulation of very different picture elements in combination with the use of luminous boxes, which play with the aesthetics of computer screens and advertising-means like citylights, reinforces the association of a picture flood induced by the mass media.
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Hungary: Ágnes Tóth (2nd Prize), Ágnes Verebics (2nd Prize) |
Ágnes Tóth: Doubt (2004) |
Ágnes Verebics: Faces (2004) |
Ágnes Tóth is concerned with basic emotional states. Her works project halfnaked, tender women and intimate moments into the glaring limelight. The exposition of industrial/public spaces or empty backgrounds intensifies the lonely and forlorn aspects of the figures. The picture titles conceptualize meticulously observed individuals, so that they become representatives of general, existential states.
Through the covering of the transparent picture carrier (plastic foil), an additional focal plane is created behind the expressively painted portraits by Ágnes Verebics. The surrounding space and the respective lighting conditions are integrated, three-dimensionality and illusionism are thereby intensified.
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Slovakia: Dorota Kenderová (1st Prize), Martin Sedlák (2nd Prize) |
Dorota Kenderová: On TV (2003) |
Martin Sedláks: The View into Paradise (2004) |
In the video installation "On TV", Dorota Kenderová intervenes as a so-called "woman-virus" in state television. She appears repeatedly in the background of news broadcasts and interviews with famous personalities, while always being recognizable in her white dress.
By way of thin stripes of electric luminous foil, Martin Sedlák paints installative light objects on walls. Despite the non-representational depiction and spaciality of the foils, an illusionary space is opened up behind each wall, on which the installation is fixed. Sedlák thereby provides the viewer with a framework for his imagination.
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Slovenia: Julij Borštnik (1st Prize), Mark Požlep (2nd Prize) |
Julij Borštnik: Roller of Capitalism (2005) |
Mark Požlep: Cities (2004) |
In his piece "Roller of Capitalism", Julij Borštnik thematizes a self-reproducing system of bureaucracy, globalization and capitalism, always revolving in the same circle. In contrast with the depth of the contents, the sweeping sculpture presents itself as a fragile installation made from carton, a "poor" material, seldom used in the medium of sculpture.
The media-transgressing artwork "Cities" by Mark Požlep combines the media of painting, drawing, graffiti, collage, object trouvé and video. Požlep here processes visual impressions of his numerous city travels.
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Czech Republic: Kateřina Šedá (1st Prize), Ondřej Brody (2nd Prize) |
Kateřina Šedá: There is nothing there (2003) |
Ondřej Brody: ARTSTAR (2004) |
In the first place, Kateřina Šedá’s works are social projects. In her pieces, she places an emphasis on action and on co-operation with people, while the documentation of these encounters or their presentation is assigned only secondary importance. In her project “There is nothing there“ she examined the social structure of a village and synchronized in a common action the everyday activities of all inhabitants regarding both their contents and time. The result is a video document, in which the invisible normality of everyday-life suddenly seems disconcerting and strange due to its multiplication.
In numerous artworks, Ondřej Brody questions cultural-political power structures, while his focus is mainly placed on basic conditions and freedoms of art. The piece “Artstar“ presents the extract from a Czech television broadcast entitled “The Czech Republic looks for an Artstar“, in which Brody participated. In this presentation, the video-document as artwork becomes a critical statement on superficial art reflection, nowadays degraded to mass entertainment.
Special Invitations: Marián Grolmus (Slovakia), Gašper Jemec (Slovenia)
Catalogue
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Essl Award 2005
German and English. 128 pages with numerous color images. With articles by Karlheinz Essl, Erhard Busek, René Block, Sini Zein, Radek Horaček, Jana Geržová, Julia Fabényi, Petja Grafenauer Krnc und Nataša Ilic. |
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Edition Sammlung Essl Privatstiftung: Klosterneuburg 2005 |
Press text
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ESSL AWARD 2005 for Central and Southeast Europe Press information in PDF format |
