Jindrich Chalupecky Award 2021
Artists selected for the 32nd edition are announced
The jury decided to select four artists and one art group for the 32nd edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award, Czech Republic’s leading award for artists up to the age of 35. They include Robert Gabris, Jakub Jansa, Valentýna Janů, Anna Ročňová and Björnsonova artistic non-collective. The collective exhibition will be held in the fall of 2021 at the Pražák Palace of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. In December, the exhibition of international guests will open to the public, featuring the work of Daniel Fernández Pascual & Alon Schwabe also known as Cooking Sections on the international art scene.
Diversity of materials and topics with a common denominator in working with emotions, intuition and imagination
The international jury, comprised of Ivet Ćurlin (Kunsthalle Wien), Anna Daučíková (artist and teacher, Prague), Charles Esche (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), João Laia (Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki) and Jan Zálešák (curator and teacher, Brno), assessed almost 90 portfolios presenting the work of artists working on the contemporary Czech art scene. The selection represents a broad range of media and theoretical approaches; as a whole, the level and quality of the applied works was very high according to the jury. Like in the past year, the selected artists agreed that their nomination for the collective exhibition is sufficient appreciation. Therefore, the jury will not select a single “award holder” this year either. Curated by the collective of Jindřich Chalupecký Society for the first time, the exhibition will open on September 23, 2021.
Valentýna Janů: Is Your Blue the Same as Mine?, 2018, video installation, Prague
“We appreciated the quality and diversity of the submitted portfolios and their range in terms of geography, gender and identity. We noted with approval the way artistic and activist positions were combined. We also noticed a visible turn towards diverse forms of collaboration across the art scene. Many of the artists were addressing highly relevant questions of reframing gender or national identities, feminist and queer positions, questioning the late capitalist status quo. Various artworks were also sensitive to environmental concerns and showed understanding of the necessity of finding a balance in precarious ecosystems, observing them from a holistic perspective beyond the dichotomy of the living and the object, human and non-human,” says the jury statement.
Robert Gabris: Performance Insectopia 3 , Photo: Ela Bialokowa: Okno Studio
Björnsonova: Harvested Darkness
The jury appreciated Björnsonova art group’s ability to combine diverse sources of inspiration, from witchcraft through feminist literature to pop-cultural symbols, within an artistic practice that is consciously embedded in the current geographical and sociopolitical context, taking a stance that could be referred to as Czechoslovak postcolonialism and irreverence to patriarchal or other oppressive structures. With sensitivity and an engaged approach, Robert Gabris shows interest in excluded groups and queer corporeality confronted by the norms and limitations of majority society. Using traditional media such as drawing overlapping with performance and installation, he addresses the complexity of his own identities – sexual, geographical and national.
Jakub Jansa, Club of Opportunities, PAF, Pioneer Works 1
Jakub Jansa builds intriguing narratives through impersonating or giving voice to non-human entities; the protagonists of his videos include celery and tapeworms among others. Through his projects, he explores the late stage of post-internet art and corporate aesthetics with both critical distance and ease of navigation. His work connects the international language(s) of contemporary art with local references. Valentýna Janů shows an accomplished use of moving image and installation strategies addressing the life questions determined by the world of technology, patriarchal system and climate change. Her vivid imagery and strong textual or narrative base result in convincing cross-media work. Through her poetical approach, sculptor Anna Ročňová shows high sensibility in relation to the floral world, exploring the borderlines and crossovers between urban and natural environments. Beyond modernist divisions of nature and culture, she reinvents nature, questions the notion of the artificial, and turns to unexpected and overlooked natural forms.
Anna Ročňová: Drought inside the plant, City Gallery of Blansko, Blansko, 2020
Artists selected for this year’s edition confirm the persisting tendencies of the need for a “non-competitive” award
For several years, the local and international art scenes have seen debates on whether art awards in their traditional competitive form are still relevant for contemporary visual arts and the current social tendencies. The events that took place at several leading European art awards, whose participants have criticized the established principles and workings in the past years, have been reflected in the Czech context as well, the strongest gesture being the rejection of selecting a single award holder by the finalists of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020. This decision, unprecedented in the local context, was accepted by the administrative board of Jindřich Chalupecký Society, which enabled all of the artists of the given edition to receive the full award.
In this way, the past edition intensified the long-term debates on the future form of Jindřich Chalupecký Award, which has developed over the past thirty years from an award for the previous work of artists (individuals and later small groups of shortlisted artists) into a platform supporting the creation of new artworks of five finalists, intensive promotion and curatorial and production support of their work throughout the year. The resulting artworks are traditionally presented at a collective exhibition at one of Czech Republic’s leading art institutions in the fall. The question of whether it is necessary or appropriate to select a single “winner” and what the expectations of the professional and general public are concerning Jindřich Chalupecký Award was raised by the independent qualitative research conducted in the first half of 2020. Its results are available on the Jindřich Chalupecký Society blog. While the research has proved the great variety and ambiguity of the opinions on this topic, it has also shown that to many responders, the support of the work of young artists, their promotion and the contribution to the broader debate on relevant social questions as well as communication with the general public are a bigger priority than awarding a single artist.
Like in the past edition, this year, too, the five artists selected for Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2021 can make use of year-round collaboration, international networking and access to art studios. Besides the exhibition at the Moravian Gallery in Brno, their work will be shown at various presentations and side events as well as online and through regular media coverage.
“I am hoping that the elimination of competition from Jindřich Chalupecký Award can only result in a more kind and less stressful working environment for all participants. The idea of collaboration on the final exhibition instead of an individual desire for appreciation seems like a big win already,” says one of the artists selected for this year’s edition, Valentýna Janů, about their collective approach.
“The past edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award, which was the first one not to select a single award holder, was a pleasant year-round collaboration resulting in a generous exhibition at PLATO Gallery in Ostrava. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it was only open for a brief period of time and we were mostly able to present it online; however, we are hoping that the public will be able to attend it early this year. I believe it shows quite well that selecting the award holder has not been the main point of Jindřich Chalupecký Award for quite some time. The Award still remains a kind of a competition, as the five finalists are selected among a large number of applications with high quality portfolios. The main prize thus lies in the opportunity to create a new work, gain more attention of the professional and general public and communicate one’s work internationally. It is not about five artists hunting for a trophy,” says Karina Kottová, director of Jindřich Chalupecký Society.
Cooking Sections present a project highlighting the problematic practices of the food industry
The international guests of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2021 are Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, an artistic duo also known as Cooking Sections. In their practice, they focus on exploring the complex issues of the globally interconnected world, primarily in the fields of agriculture and food production, revealing socio-economic, historical, political and environmental contexts. Their Brno exhibition will present another iteration of their project Salmon: A Red Herring premiered last fall at Tate Britain in London. The project addresses color from the perspective of the food industry and its impact on the environment. The visually impressive exhibition at the Pražák Palace will be accompanied by a series of live events (lectures, debates, performances) and will open along with the traditional Jury Weekend of Jindřich Chalupecký Award in early December. Salmon: A Red Herring is part of the CLIMAVORE long-term research project with site-responsive iterations. The artists will focus their research on the local context of Brno and primarily its restaurant network, aiming to raise awareness and appeal to withdraw meals with the ingredient of salmon from local menus. The exhibition of the international guests, curated by Barbora Ciprová and Tereza Jindrová from Jindřich Chalupecký Society, will open on Thursday, December 2, 2021.
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Prize for the artists of the 32nd edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award
- Budget of 50 000 CZK for the creation of a new artwork or project, architectural and technological solution of the exhibition project, artist’s fee
- professional collaboration on the adjustment and exhibition of the work at the Moravian Gallery in Brno
- year-round curatorial and production collaboration on the creation of artworks
- professional photo and video documentation
- possibility of workshops and consultations with experts on various art processes and techniques
- access to art studios
- raising the visibility of the artist’s work in professional and general media
- international networking and studio visits with international curators
- support of new projects and work in 2022.
