Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2019

The finalists of the 30th annual edition of the Czech Republic’s most prestigious award for visual artists up to the age of 35 were selected by an international jury. The jury appreciated the works signaling the renewed and updated interest in materiality and sensuality and was impressed by the artists that position their works in the middle of the current social debates while testing art as a tool of communication and perhaps even of the possible change of the current issues.

Finalists

For the anniversary 30th edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2019, the international jury selected the following five finalists from the ranks of visual artists up to the age of 35: Andreas Gajdošík, Baptiste Charneux, Marie Lukáčová, Pavla Malinová and the art collective Comunite Fresca including Dana Balážová, Markéta Filipová and Marie Štindlová.

Award Holder

The Award holder of the 30th edition of Jindřich Chalupecký Award is Andreas Gajdošík who combines programming skills and political engagement. The jury selected Andreas for his online project Unhuman Resources as the award holder as he “is critical of the contemporary political context and appropriates its tools to dismantle the way its power structures work. Beyond social engagement, he has also developed a different language through art, which is deep, earnest and poetic.” 

Gajdošík traditionally wins a two-month stay in New York in collaboration with Residency Unlimited and 100.000 CZK for the creation of a new art project. Jindřich Chalupecký Society will provide further support in the realization and presentation of this project. 

The Audience Award goes to Pavla Malinová.

Jury

The award holder was selected by an international jury comprised of representatives of leading international art institutions. These will include head of the jury Vjera Borozan, art historian and theorist, lecturer based in Prague, Zdenka Badovinac, director of Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, João Laia, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Lenka Klodová, artist, head of the Studio of Body Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Laurel Ptak, executive director of Art in General, New York.

Exhibition

The exhibition of the finalists and the international guest was held in the fall at the Moravian Gallery in Brno. In 2019 the foreign guest was Tai Shani, an artist from Great Britain, who presented a new art project named Tragodía.

The experimental element of this year’s Jindřich Chalupecký Award exhibition was the solar-powered energy system and the related research concerning the sustainability of the activity of cultural institutions at the time of a climate emergency. 

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony of the 30th Jindřich Chalupecký Award was held at Metropol cinema within the PAF, a festival of animated film and contemporary art, on December 6, 2019, in Olomouc. The ceremony was directed by Bohdan Bláhovec and moderated by Michal Pěchouček and Pavla Sedliská. The ceremony was broadcasted by the Czech Television.

Watch the award ceremony on the ČT Art channel here.