AICA HELLAS 2007 AWARD
Launched in 2007, the AICA HELLAS Award is motivated by a broad demand to encourage critical appraisal of contemporary art production, opening a space for lively response and dialogue between artists and active members of the purely intellectual space of art. The essential purpose of the Award is the dissemination and promotion of the quality image of the contemporary art scene of Greece to a wider audience inside and outside our country.
The awarding of the AICA HELLAS Award and Honorary Distinctions 2007 took place with great success at the Benaki Museum, building on Piraeus Street, on Wednesday, May 2, 2007.
The awards given are: Out-of-competition AICA HELLAS Award
To Giannis Kounellis, for his active and crucial contribution to the contemporary intellectual life and artistic events of Greece and the international arena and as a recognition of the special importance of his work, as presented in his solo exhibition at the Attis Theater, in 2005, showing art as a critical attitude to life in modern culture.
AICA HELLAS Award
To Nikos Navridis, for his work entitled 18: Beckett - Breath 2005, presented at the 51st Venice Biennale, at Arsenale, in 2005.
The work 18: Beckett - Breath 2005 was a special example of spirituality and advanced handling of the new means of visual language and space, which attracted the interest and admiration of the international public, ranking his work [and of course Nikos Navridis himself] among the most remarkable contemporary artists internationally, and it was unanimously decided to award him the AICA HELLAS Award. The AICA HELLAS Award, which corresponds to the amount of € 7,000, is awarded by the Ioannis F. Kostopoulos Foundation for the year 2007.
Honorary Distinctions
- To Lida Papakonstantinou for the exhibition at the Bey Hamam (Paradise Baths), in Thessaloniki in 2006, presenting her works from 1969 to 2004. Her important and long-term contribution to the development of innovative forms of expression and, especially, in the development of the art of performance and in the poetic use of the body, he emerged in the exhibition at the Bey Hamam (Paradise Baths), with the masterful exploitation of the image-space interaction, creating an exciting experience for the viewer.
- To Rena Papaspyrou for the solo exhibition, entitled, "Absolute visibility blinds me", organized at the Gallery "Gazon Rouge", in Athens in 2006. as a means of balancing the conceptual and material nature of the work of art, while at the same time, the use of the image as a repetitive motif dramatically expanded the visual perception of the space.
- To Nikos Charalambidis for the work entitled Social Gym # 336, which he presented at the 27th Biennale of Sao Paulo, in 2006. The sharpness of his critical vision, with which he constantly explores the political and cultural parameters, proposing art as a global and unlimited field of action and overthrow of the dominant aesthetic contexts of modern culture, was concentrated in a solemn spirit in the installation of multiple media held at the 27th Biennale of Sao Paulo.
Distinction of a Young Artist
The Young Artist Award was given to Panagiotis Loukas for the series of works he presented at the solo exhibition, entitled Nihilistic Decoration, in Hamburg, in 2005. The manipulation of the imaginary space of the individual as a source of drawing a personal vocabulary, is consistently adopted in the work of Panagiotis Loukas, intensifying the destabilization of a conventional reading of things.
Award Jury 2007
The Jury for the AICA HELLAS Award 2007 consists of the members of the Board 2006-2009 Efi Strouza (President), Maria Marangou (General Secretary), Miltos Frangopoulos (Treasurer), Emmanouil Mavrommatis (Member), Stavros Tsigoglou (Member)
Structure of the AICA HELLAS Award
The AICA HELLAS Award established in 2007 will be awarded every two years. The proposals for the nominated artists of the Award are submitted by the members of AICA HELLAS. The jury consists of the members of the respective Board of Directors.
Benaki Museum Piraeus Street Building
