Oskár Čepan

Foundation – Center for Contemporary Arts has a pleasure to invite you to the opening of the exhibition of finalists and the official announcement of the winner of the Oskár Čepan Award 2018.

• Exhibiton of finalists of the Oskár Čepan Award 2018: Time After Time: 10. – 26. 10. 2018; • Opening: 4. 10. 2018 OD Dunaj, Námestie SNP 30, Bratislava

Finalists: Lucia Mičíková, Adam Novota, Emília Rigová a Boris Sirka

Curator: Lucia Gregorová Stach

Jury statement

The jury has selected four artists – Lucie Mičíková (Tábor, 1986), Adam Novota (Bratislava, 1984), Emília Rigová (Trnava, 1980) and Boris Sirka (Snina, 1981) – who represent multifaceted contemporary artistic approaches, ranging from neo-conceptual and socially engaged works to a new critical spirit towards modern and neo-avant-garde paradigms. High levels of artistic quality and contemporaneity characterize all their positioning. Lucie Mičíková’s drawings, paintings and site-specific installations focus on ephemeral and fragile structures that subvert any idea of solidity or durability. Temporality and performative aspects are further issues of her work that also include cooperation with architects and sociologists. With her networklike structures, her output can be seen as a series of metaphors for dynamic and complex reality, as an interwoven and structured whole. Adam Novota reflects upon institutional structures in arts as well as in political and social fields. In his multimedia installations, films and performances, he transgresses traditional art and media categories. He thematizes processes of political and mental manipulation with artistic strategies in search of existing utopian aspects in everyday life. In her installations, performances and graphic work, Emília Rigová deals with social stereotypes and body politics in a critical and engaged way. She focuses on the sections of society that have been systematically eradicated from hegemonic historical discourses and collective memory or memories. Within this thematic framework, the construction and presence of Romani identity constitutes a central topic. With his paintings, objects, site-specific installations and his video and sound art Boris Sirka represents a generation of artists that oppose the modernist and neo-avant-garde paradigms of purity and steady progress. For Sirka, traditional and hypermodern techniques, as well as the classical and the experimental, are not necessarily seen as antagonistic but rather as dialectical tools to create a new spirit in arts. His work is also characterized by a high sensitivity towards urbanization and its role for the life of an individual. The jury would like to add that gender equality constituted a vital aspect of the selection process in addition to a desire for inclusivity.

Jury

RAINER FUCHS (AT) Vice director and head of the scientific department at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok) and lecturer at the Akademie der bildende Künste, Vienna (AT), with professional focus in austrian and international modern and contemporary art in context of cultural anthropology.

MICHAL NOVOTNÝ (CZ) Curator and critique, director at the Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague (CZ).

KIKI PETRATOU (GR, NL) Artist, curator and director at Joey Ramone Gallery in Rotterdam (NL).

LORA SARIASLAN (TR, NL) Art historian and curator, formerly working in the Dallas Museum of Art (USA) and Istanbul Modern (TR), free-lance curator and lecturer at Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL).