|
Exchange in Visual Arts
YOUNG VISUAL ARTISTS AWARDS
A Project of the Foundation for a Civil Society
The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS) with affiliates in eight countries in Central Europe and the Balkans has organized
a major international fellowship award program for young visual artists in the region. This unique program was established
with President Havel and a group of artists in Czechoslovakia in 1990. Since then this highly successful annual program with
national exhibitions and awards, including travel fellowships to the United States for artists under the age of 35, has now
been expanded from the Czech Republic to Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro,
and Slovenia.
The organizers in each country and FCS wish to extend the scope of the program by regular gatherings of the artists, curators,
organizers and arts professionals to engender greater contact as well as exposure for the young artists of CEE and the Balkans.
These will include both formal and informal encounters, exhibitions, catalogues, and residencies. Digital media is being used
to present the art scene of the region with web-based catalogues. All these will create vital connections and increase the
public awareness of the talent available in these countries. The artists cherish the contacts they have made among themselves
during their fellowships abroad and would like to deepen and broaden these. The YVAA partners have already received a grant
from the European Cultural Foundation to begin with the first phases of the envisioned activities.
The cultural scenes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are at various stages based on the speed of transition
and recent political developments. Young artists in these countries, however, face the same issues when developing their careers
– seeking acknowledgement, building reputation, looking for contacts, desiring an exchange with peers, and exposing
themselves to the larger world and its art scene. Few institutions exist to help them achieve these goals and they differ
from one country to another.
In 1990, President Vaclav Havel and a group of artists founded the Jindrich Chalupecky Award in Czechoslovakia designed to
expose young artists to the free world and to underscore the role of culture in democratization. They established an open
and transparent annual competition judged by an independent and changing jury without the nepotism and favoritism of communist
days. The award provides a young visual artist under 35 not only with the opportunity to have a joint exhibition with the
finalists at a prestigious gallery or museum but also to travel to the United States and participate in the dynamic art scene
in New York. Upon returning home, he or she has a solo exhibition. It is now the most respected arts award in the country.
After the split of Czechoslovakia, a similar award was also established in Slovakia. Several years later art organizations
from other countries expressed interest in replicating this structure and their effort gave birth to the Young Visual Artists
Awards project, which now encompasses eight awards – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and
Montenegro, and Slovenia. A total of 40 young artists have been awarded so far and for all of them, the receipt of the award
marked a significant change in their careers.
The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS), with generous funding from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, has managed the U.S.
part of the fellowship, receiving the winning artists and arranging their visit and travel for a six-week stay in New York
with a studio at the highly acclaimed International Studio and Curatorial Program. Organizations in each country independently
conduct the in-country competition, the exhibitions, the fundraising and the award ceremony, reflecting their commitment to
the goals of the awards.
In November 2005, a joint exhibition of all YVAA finalists was held in Prague on the occasion of the sixteenth Jindrich Chalupecky
Award ceremony. While the exhibition was on view, the FCS, again with the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, convened
the organizers and winning artists from all of the eight countries to meet in Prague. In addition to a public presentation
of each award and the winning artists’ work, the participants met in a closed meeting to share their organizational
experience and thoughts on how to build on the remarkable inter-European and international informal network that has been
developed over time (with 16 years of history in the Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia, 10 years in Slovakia, 4 years in Croatia
and Serbia and Montenegro, 3 years in Macedonia and Kosovo, and starting in 2006 also in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The topics of discussion included fundraising needs for continued sustainability of all of the awards, the extreme interest
in informal trans-border and regional collaboration, and the need to expose the local art scenes to foreign audience, especially
through creation of personal contacts.
The informal trans-border projects may find a fertile ground in the very specific experiences of countries in different stages
of transition, supported by ongoing professional relationships between the organizers and the artists alike. The seminar underscored
the fact that regional Central and Eastern European exchange is as important as contacts with art scenes in the West, building
on closer historical ties and cultural references. Such an exchange is also important to the confidence building and empowerment
of the artists and arts professionals.
The following modes of extended cooperation were identified by the participants of the Prague seminar:
• regular gatherings such as the Prague seminar to deepen the personal and professional relationships of the organizers
as well as the artists, who so far are the only ones with the advantage of creating connections with the artists of the regional
awards during their New York residencies
• organization of bi-annual exhibitions of winners from all countries with occasional major exhibitions and symposia
surveying the art of the region
• informal exchange of people at multiple arts events in the region
• inclusion of foreigners on the juries
• invitation of foreign curators from out of the region to visit the countries in the region and to learn about the
art scene through studio visits and meetings with artists in person
• jointly seek financial support for sustainability of the competitions to achieve more visibility and prestige
• finding financial support for realization of artists work and creation of promotional materials using digital media
to present the art scene of the region including web based catalogues of past winners and finalists and the history of all
awards
As Richard Lanier, Director of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, said in the catalogue that accompanied the Prague exhibition
of the Young Visual Artists Awards: “One of the most exciting aspects of these programs is the way they broaden the
aesthetic experience not only of those who receive the award but also of everyone – fellow artists, curators, critics,
and members of the public alike – with whom the winners come in contact, both at home and abroad. It has been especially
valuable, for example, in introducing to [the wider international community] the tremendous vitality and creativity of the
art being produced in Central and Eastern Europe today.”
The Foundation for a Civil Society and its partners see this as a unique opportunity to build on a vibrant network of arts
organizations to promote regional exchange and cooperation.
Exchange in Visual Arts - YOUNG VISUAL ARTISTS AWARDS in 2006
• Foundation/Center for Contemporary Arts in Bratislava, Contemporary Art Center Skopje and Institute for Contemporary
Art, SCCA Zagreb with the support of the FCS have applied for a grant from the European Cultural Foundation to establish a
simple coordination entity – Center for Exchange in Visual Arts – as a presentation and promotion platform for
the YVAA winners and finalists and the awards, and the exposure of the art scenes in the region to international audience
and regional general public. The ECF grant was awarded.
• The YVAA/Exchange in Visual Arts website is currently being designed and constructed with the official launch planned
for October 2006.
• Exhibition of the latest YVAA winners from all eight countries will open on October 5, 2006, hosted and organized
by the Kosova Art Gallery in Prishtina.
• The second gathering of YVAA artists and organizers will be held during on the occasion of the opening of the above
exhibition in Prishtina during the dates of October 3-6. The program includes practical matters like establishing methods
for distribution contributions for the travel fund created with seed money from the ECF grant as well as method for multiplication
of the fund; website update and administration, exchange of cultural participation proposals, sharing experience on art education
called for by the Kosovo organizers, plans for further joint fundraising and other issues.
• Award competitions were held for the first time in history in Slovenia (OHO Award) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZVONO
Award) and their winners spend their first New York residencies.
• The 2006 award announcements have met in several countries with the record number of applications (Radoslav Putar
Award in Croatia 43 applications, Oskar Cepan award in Slovakia 40 applications, OHO Award in Slovenia 52 applications).
• All 2006 award winners were announced by the end of August 2006. New York residencies at the International Studio
and Curatorial Program in New York are held in two sessions of 4 artists each in the period of September 1-November 30, 2006.
The project builds on a unique, organically growing program that started with an idea in 1990 and over time grew into a group
of awards in eight countries. The fact that the awards have shown growing interest in their own countries is the expression
of the strength of the simple but strong idea behind the awards. Basing cooperation on an organically created network is a
unique process in the region and so far only limited cooperation between all of these countries exists. The oldest of the
awards, the Jindrich Chalupecky Award in the Czech Republic, is an example that organizers in the other countries wish to
follow – the prestige of the award within the Czech Republic is constantly growing and the winners and finalists of
the award are constantly present on their local as well as the international art scenes. The same is happening in the other
countries – to name a few, YVAA winners and finalists were selected to exhibit at Venice, Istanbul and Berlin biennials
all within the past two years. Giving the art scene the tools for proper presentation of such success would result in multiplication
of the effect of the awards. In some countries the awards are the only competitive event on the art scene run in a completely
transparent method. The continuity and stability of these independent awards is an innovation in itself.
AWARDS AND THEIR ORGANIZERS: ZVONO AWARD - Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Arts, Bosnia and Herzegovina; RADOSLAV PUTAR AWARD
- Institute for Contemporary Art, SCCA Zagreb, Croatia; JINDRICH CHALUPECKY AWARD - Jindrich Chalupecky Society, Czech Republic;
ARTIST OF TOMORROW AWARD - Kosova Art Gallery, Kosovo; DENES AWARD - Contemporary Art Center
Skopje, Macedonia; DIMITRIJ BASICEVIC
MANGELOS AWARD – kontekst gallery, Serbia; OSKAR CEPAN AWARD - Foundation/Center for Contemporary Arts, Slovakia; OHO
AWARD - Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Gallery in Center P47, Slovenia.
YVAA
Official Site
Similar Partner:
CEC ARTSLINK
|
