26.3.2011
On Saturday, 26 March 2011, at a commemorative ceremony, three buying awards of the competition T-HTnagrada@msu.hr for 2010 were presented. Once again, the international expert committee had a very difficult task during both phases of their jury work. In the first phase, when out of 260 received works they had to select 40 for the exhibition and in the second phase, when they had to determine three winners.
When judging, the jury, apart from the topic, evaluated also the method and technique of work creation, the continuity of artist’s work, and the context in which the selected would be. Thus, three very different art works were awarded: a sculptural interactive installation made of various elements, a video installation consisting of a static frame with condensed contents, and a video work of 48 minutes, edited from a number visually completely different frames, clips from films on film tape and hand held video recordings, merging into an exceptionally coherent and rhythmical collage.
1st award, HRK 75,000
The first award was given to Jagoda Kaloper for “Woman in the Mirror”. In her video work, the author combined clips from films in which she played in the 1960s and 1970s and frames of herself which she made with a hand held digital camera on reflective surfaces, contemplating them for this work. She achieved an exceptionally interesting and multi-layered result. Her work may be observed from several aspects: as a very elaborated search for identity, as an existential study, but also as a record of time that very poetically and honestly opens eternal topics such as the intimate and the public, the meaning of past, youth, and aging. The artist derived the collage of films clips (made on film tape), edited by using the technique of invisible cut, from major film achievements of the Croatian regional film industry. Jagoda Kaloper played the leading role in a range of important and cult films of her period (W.R. Mysteries of the Organism by Dušan Makavejev or Foxes by Krsto Papić), for some of them she won respectable awards (Golden Arena in Pula for the role in the film House by B. Žižić). “Woman in the Mirror” is Jagoda Kaloper’s great return to the Croatian art scene and will truly enrich the MSU collection.
2nd award, HRK 70,000
The second award was given to the video work "Generatio aequivoca" by Dan Oki, presenting the cult beach Bačvice in Split. The video installation of large dimensions is made of one single frame, taken from a distance with exceptionally strong telescopic lens, creating practically a two-dimensional, flat depth of the field that compresses over a hundred of actual meters. Movements are condensed, while single swimmers are reduced to a common measure. The composition with a number of minor scenes and actions directly reminds of great European Renaissance painters of the north, such as Bosch or Bruegel. This helps to achieve the vitality of the scene, a spontaneity through which the motion of a vast mass of swimmers is organized into a temporarily regulated system, and to indicate the existence of a higher order that is incomprehensible to an individual. Whether it is a video projection of large dimensions on the wall, as it is the case in this exhibition, or a small projection on a screen, the work of Dan Oki is of museum format in any case.
3rd award, HRK 65,000
The third award was given to the interactive sculptural installation “Nerves” by Alem Korkut. The installation has caused various reactions by the public and expert committee – but they were always intense. A set of “nerves”, spread on the floor of the exhibition room, is started by an impulse of the sensor which reacts to movements: when a visitor comes closer, a set of unpredictable movements is started. This work is a consistent continuation of Korkut’s work, in which he brings the elements of chaos, indeterminacy, and technical innovations into the heritage of classical sculpture. “Nerves” remain noted as a drawing in space, on the floor of the gallery, even when there is no one around. The work is created from simple building elements and shapes and there are many ways in which it can be interpreted: from reading into neutral and/or social networks, communications, power supply, to the heritage of minimal sculpture of the seventies, or as a simple and unpretentious game.