ESSL AWARD 2007

Press release Essl Museum, November 2007

ESSL AWARD EXHIBITION 2007
Essl Award for Central and East Europe. The Winners.
05 Dec 07 - 10 Feb 08

Press conference: 04 Dec 07, 10.30
Opening: 04 Dec 07, 19.30
Project management and exhibition organisation: Silvia Köpf, Daniela Balogh, Andreas Hoffer
Venue: Essl Museum, Gallery rooms

The "Essl Award for Central and Southeast Europe" is awarded every two years. The
works submitted by the winners of the 2007 Essl Award are characterised by great
diversity of media and intriguing creative approaches. Conceptual work, painting,
photography, video and spectacular installations provide insights into the young
contemporary art scene of the respective countries of central and southeast Europe.
A project realised in co-operation with the art academies of Croatia, Slovenia, the
Slovak and Czech Republics and Hungary as well as bauMax and the insurance
companies of Vienna Insurance Group in these countries, the Essl Award has aimed
for the second time at promoting young creative talents. An international jury shortlisted
10 nominees for each country from the digital submissions of the students. The
award was open for all artistic media. The nominated artists presented their work to
the public in group exhibitions in their respective country in April 2007. The
exhibitions were hosted by renowned institutions such as the National Gallery of
Slovenia in Ljubljana, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest or the Glyptotheque in Zagreb.
The jury met at the exhibition openings and based on their assessment of the original
works of art made their choice of the winners of the 2007 Essl Award. In addition, the
art collectors Agnes and Karlheinz Essl issued a number of special invitations for the
final exhibition at the Essl Museum.
A first and second prize, endowed with EUR 4000 and 3000, respectively, were
awarded in each country. The award scheme also includes the exhibition of all awardwinning
works at the Essl Museum, including the publication of a catalogue in English
and German. While the exhibition generally presents the award-winners arranged by
country, a small "exhibition within the exhibition" shows some of the works in a direct
trans-border dialogue.

CZECH REPUBLIC
1st Prize
Tomáš Džadoň lives and works in Prague. He mainly addresses the conflict of cultural
traditions in a changed social environment. Džadoň takes a subtle approach to reveal
these changes. In "Hyperlink" (2006), for instance, he hides his grandmother’s bacon
in a painted white cube whose minimalist shape and perfect surface would induce noone
to expect that sort of content. The smell of cured meat irritates when coming
from a "white cube". This take on Czech culture can also be found in the conceptual
work "Folk Architecture Monument" (2006), where he puts a traditional Czech log
cabin on top of a communist prefab concrete high-rise.

2nd Prize
Already one of the Essl Award nominees in 2005, Jakub Nepraš impressed the jury
with his "video paintings". "Babylon Plant" (2006), a technically demanding video
collage displays the complexities of modern society by through the micro-organic
structures of a plant. In a miasma of small-format images which seem to consist only
of movement when viewed from a distance, the artist describes scenes from an urban
setting. The images are organised into organic shapes similar to vegetal cell
structures and merge into a giant plant. Flows of people and vehicles are reminiscent
of the vibrations of micro-organisms. Nepraš: "The purpose of this work is the desire
to study and learn about relations of the interconnected world in which we live and to
inspire unusual hidden vibration."

SLOVAKIA
1st Prize
The photographer Andrea Kalinová manages to translate socio-political and social
themes into striking images. Even though she seemingly reflects familiar social
problems, her interest is focused on secondary, seemingly marginal aspects. In the 9-
part series "Homeless Re(a)lity" (2003-2006) she takes a subtle approach to the
problem of homelessness. In order to avoid sociological cliché her photographs do not
include their inhabitant. Instead, the artist uses pictograms from tourist ads to make
it even more obvious how much poverty and hopelessness exist in an affluent society.
In her multi-layered work she crosses media boundaries and uses various modes of
expression.

2 nd Prize
A central theme in Veronika Šramatyová’s work is the value and significance of art
within society. In the series "Entries" (2003/2007) Šramatyová portrays the entrances
of all the houses she has ever lived in. Due to the great photorealism and the format
the paintings can hardly be distinguished from photographs. Forced to look at the
picture more closely, the viewer is gradually led to a moment of perception and
revelation. The linear presentation of the small-format paintings makes the collection
of memories appear as a conceptual series of non-personal documentaries. The video
piece "White paper" (2000) documents an action in which the artist dropped empty
white paper flyers into private mailboxes or handed them out to surprised passers-by
in the streets.

HUNGARY
1st Prize
The conceptual work of Ádám Albert focuses on themes such as truth, reality and
illusion. In "O. T." (2006/2007) Albert designs fake street signs that resemble signs in
the streets of Budapest in terms of size, material and enamel coating. By giving his
signs their own, elegant graphic design Albert questions the organisational rules of
society. His particular interest is devoted to the loss of privacy. By means of a variety
of electronic devices such as cameras, antennas and mobile telephones he illustrates
the permanent surveillance of people in a global consumer society.

2nd Prize
The open character of Dániel Horváth’s paintings gives room to a wide range of
meanings. He combines and confronts different foregrounds and backgrounds and
thereby plays irritating games with reality. In "Lego II". (2006), for instance, a Lego
tree is set into a trimmed baroque garden - the question arises whether it is a Lego
tree on a stage or an abstract landscape with a symbolic tree. The realistic aspects
are taken away one by one and only a few imitative elements remain in his paintings.
The artist breaks through the viewer’s illusions by means of irony and creates
different atmospheres from the dramatic or fabled to the grotesque.

SLOVENIA
1st Prize
Velibor Barišič addresses societal behaviours and routines which he exposes to
subversive criticism. "ppp BoX Museum" (2007) is a critique of contemporary art
practices in a global networked world. Small white boxes the size of a pillar box have
been converted into a peep-hole museum. Barišič invites his friends from a street-art
graffiti crew to curate peep-hole museum exhibits and the artist himself acts as a
museum director. The interactive installation "Prototrip" s his take on shopping.
Similar to a car or motor-cycle, a shopping cart is "pimped" with monitors, sound
system, cut-out symbols and paint. With this work the artist encourages the viewers
to consciously engage in and enjoy the rituals of consumer society.

2nd Prize
In her very sensitive video pieces Ana Sluga explores destruction, brutality and selfdenial.
In "Away" (2006), the demolition of a building is accompanied by classical
music. The black-and-white slow motion pictures and the music create a melancholy
atmosphere which gives the brutal demolition a strangely irritating stylised flavour.
"Homo Faber" (2007) is a slow-motion video of almost painting-like quality of the
movements of a new-born child. The child symbolises purity, inexperience and the
lack of corruption. The title, "Homo Faber", associates the message also adult,
creative human beings with all their faults.

CROATIA
1st Prize
Tonka Maleković impressed the jury most of all with the conceptual power of her
installations and the critical dimension of her work. In "Quarantine" (2007) she
documents the cleaning of urban spaces by collecting posters she finds in the streets,
collecting them and stacking them into 70 cm acrylic cubes. Their presentation in a
museum context is a deliberate reflection of the omnipresence of advertising media,
such as street lighting, poster walls or wallscapes, which Maleković considers aseptic.

2nd Prize
Zlatan Vehabović is a painter of great technical brilliance who captures our globalised
world in atmospheric, sentimental compositions. For his large-format figurative
paintings he chooses childhood motifs. He portrays deliberately bleak, mysterious
childhood spaces characterised by play, curiosity and the desire to discover new
ground and escape. Vehabovićs mannerist style of painting and the use of cool colour
tones evoke a feeling of uneasiness and mistrust vis-à-vis the materialistic
environment of the present.

The award-winning artists:

1. Preis: Ádám Albert (HU), Tomáš Džadoň (CZ), Andrea Kalinová (SK), Velibor
Barišič (SLO), Tonka Maleković (HR)
2. Preis: Dániel Horváth (HU), Jakub Nepraš (CZ), Veronika Šramatyová (SK), Ana
Sluga (SLO), Zlatan Vehabović (HR)
Special Invitations: Eszter Sipos (HU), Miklós Kiss (HU), Eva Koťátková (CZ),
Michal Černušák (SK), Mira Gáberová (SK), Mark Požlep (SLO), Nina Kurtela (HR)

Jury:
Agnes und Karlheinz Essl (Essl Museum), René Block (curator, D), János Sturcz
(Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU), Jiří Ševčík (Academy of Fine Arts in
Prague, Praha, CZ), Daniel Fischer (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, SK),
Nadja Zgonik (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, SLO), Peruško Bogdanić
(Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, HR)

PRESS: Nina Auinger: +43 (0)2243 - 370 50 62, , www.essl.museum

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