STARTPOINT PRIZE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS 2011

STARTPOINT PRIZE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS 2011

Wannieck Gallery, Brno
12. 10. — 4. 12. 2011
opening
11. 10., 18:00
open Fri — Wed
10:00 — 18:00

In the 9th year of its existence, StartPoint includes 34 prestigious art schools from 19 European countries. At each school a jury of three members chooses one graduate thesis work and at the opening of the exhibition the international jury awards a main prize and several honorary mentions. In the following year all the awarded artists are invited to participate in the residential project Started, resulting in a group show; the winner is awarded the opportunity to publish his/her own catalogue. Thus the whole project StartPoint creates a unique and continuous documentation of the emerging art generation but also a wide network of new contacts and a platform for further opportunities to meet and cooperate.

ARTISTS:
Marta Antoniak (ASP Kraków), Nicky Assmann (KABK Den Haag), Anna Błachno (WSP UMK Toruń), Daniel Djamo (UNA Bucuresti), Kevin Gaffney (RCA London), Alicja Gaskon (ASP Warszawa), Armin Lorenz Gerold (AdBK Wien), Marcel Große (AdBK Nürnberg), Daniela Hoferer (HfBK Dresden), Tommy Hovik (Kunstakademiet, Oslo), Daniella Isamit Morales (NABA Milano), Lefteris Kiourtsoglou (ASFA Athina), Izabela Koniarz (ASP Łódź), Patrik Kriššák (FU OU Ostrava), Radim Langer (VŠUP Praha), Tala Lumbar (ALUO UL Ljubljana), Carlos Azeredo Mesquita (FBA UP Porto), Oldřich Morys (FaVU VUT Brno), Javier Navarro Romero (FBA UPV Valencia), Wanda Nay (HfGK Zurich), Paul Paillet (ENSA Dijon), Claire Perret (ENSAD Lyon), Aleksandar Pertemov (KH Weissensee Berlin), Márk Radics (MKE Budapest), Richard Roháč (FU TU Košice), Igor Ruf (ALU SZ Zagreb), Sara Rutschman (HGK FHNW Basel), Lucia Sceranková (AVU Praha), Michal Šimonfy (FVU AU Banská Bystrica), Pia Sirén (KUVA Helsinki), Tomáš Šoltýs (VŠVU Bratislava), Malthe Stigaard (GRA Amsterdam), Chooc Ly Tan (Goldsmiths London), Milou van der Maaden (HKU Utrecht)

STARTPOINT 2011
For the second year, the largest show of the new graduates from European art schools StartPoint, founded in 2003 in Galerie Klatovy / Klenová, takes place under the auspices of Foundation Arbor vitae. The valuable position of being independent from institutions clearly carries with it the responsibility to establish new forms of cooperation. After last year’s event, hosted by the Central Bohemian Gallery in Kutna Hora with dignity and devotion, we were forced to look for a new exhibition space. We are happy that it is Wannieck Gallery in Brno, with both a large exhibition space and a respected private collection, who this year has offered part of its space to present the most contemporary art in Europe. I am sure that Brno, Wannieck Gallery and StartPoint will suit each other well.
For the second time the final exhibition of StartPoint takes the form of a curated show due to its increasing scale (and also due to space and budgetary limitations) which has forced the organizers to face up to the difficult need for a selection. This year, after many long discussions we had to narrow the choice to twenty five artists, the others, however, are not excluded from the catalogue or from the project’s website, www.startpoint.eu. The novel graphic design which will define StartPoint for years to come was created by the experienced and creative team around Petr Babak and his studio Laboratoř.
The most important purpose of the project StartPoint is to create new relationships and contacts between Europe and the Czech Republic but also among individual countries, artists, professors, schools, museums and galleries. The third annual meeting of the residential programme for the awarded artists called Started contributes to this aim; in 2011 it took place at Meet Factory in Prague and ended with a group exhibition in Gallery NTK. It is rewarding to see how often many of the past participants continue to make great strides and establish themselves on both the local and international scenes. We do not take credit for it but it gives us confidence in the potential of bringing together new talents which subsequently provides a wide range of valuable information about the emerging art scene throughout Europe.
Pavel Vančát, StartPoint curator

PROJECT’S PRINCIPLES
StartPoint is now in the ninth edition of its annual activities, and already 34 schools from 19 countries took part in this year’s program. Each year, two representatives of the jury and one local tutor select a single most interesting work from among the entered graduation projects of each school. On the day of the opening, the international jury selects the overall winner, who gets covered the complete production of his/her solo catalogue. Since 2008 there are also awarded several additional prizes. All awarded artists are invited for the residency program Started during the next year in Czech Republic, concluding with collective exhibition.