Agnieszka Polska, "Corrective Exercises", photograph, 2008, photo courtesy of Żak-Branicka
The young Polish artist is among the 20 nominees for the second edition of the international competition aimed at singling out some of the brightest young talents on the global art scene
The Selection Committee, chaired by Suzanne Cotter of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (Curator for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project), started off with a longlist of 4000 artists, which was then pared down to some 450 and then further whittled down to the final 20. Cotter describes the process of selecting the nominees for the final stage of the competition as an "intellectually rigorous and passionate" process. "We were delighted by what we learned through this process and by the carefully considered shortlist which emerged. The panel was unanimous in its enthusiasm for the Prize as a vital platform for bringing to the attention of a broader public the kinds of artists and art that will guide us into the future", explains Cotter.
Bjorn Geldhof, Artistic manager of the PinchukArtCentre called the selection of the 20 artists in the finale a "dynamic overview on new ideas which are developing within young art scene, offering from 16 different countries the most advanced artistic positions which represent a future generation of contemporary art". An exhibition of works by all 20 artists (18 artists and two groups) is set to open at Kiev's Punchuk Art Centre at the end of October 2012. Images of works by all the shortlisted artists will be posted on the website, and members of the public will be invited to vote via the Internet for People’s Choice Prize.
The 27-year-old Polish artist is among the group of international artists and art groups under 35 nominated for this year's prize. Previous winners include Italy's Micol Assael, Czech Republic's Eva Kotatkova, Iran's Tala Madani, Brazil's Cinthia Marcelle and Ukraine's Mykyta Kada.
Agnieszka Polska (born in 1985 in Lublin) is a video artist and photographer who creates video works employing mainly found material, such as archive photography and illustrations, which she subjects to subtle interventions, whether animating them or working them into the existing image. In the process, the artist changes their primary context, simultaneously creating illusions of documentation. She investigates the impact of documentation on its future reception. Her visually powerful explorations of lost times or half-forgotten figures of the Polish avant-garde, turn to how the past is fictionalised and re-worked.
For more information, see: www.futuregenerationartprize.org
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Press release