Change Your Perspective – The 16th Hestia Artistic Journey Competition
Entries to the 16th Hestia Artistic Journey Competition, a project intended for art students from across Poland, will be accepted until 9 January 2017. Winners will be announced at the new exhibition venue of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw – the Museum by the Vistula, which will also host an exhibition of the shortlisted works.
The Hestia Artistic Journey is a nationwide competition for art students. Contestants compete for a month-long trip and art residency in the world’s top modern art centres – New York and Valencia. After they return, the young artists will have the opportunity to hold their own individual exhibitions at prestigious galleries. Competition jury members include renowned experts from the Polish modern art community and their recognition often translates into accomplished art careers for the winners. The prestige of the competition also derives from the support of long-standing partners of the Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation (Fundacja Artystyczna Podróż Hestii, APH), including art schools from across Poland, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, New York’s Residency Unlimited and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which hosts the finalists’ exhibitions.
The jubilee 15th edition of the Hestia Artistic Journey competition was an excellent opportunity to take a look back at its history. The multi-coloured jungle, which has become the visual symbol of the last fifteen years, alludes to the long history of the programme, its vicissitudes and transformations. As the concept of the competition gradually evolved, it became necessary to take on new challenges which come naturally as part and parcel of involvement in the art world.
“In this edition of the competition we strongly encourage participants to change their perception, urging them to look at art and at the surrounding reality from various perspectives. ‘Change your perspective’ is a very important message and an argument for us to showcase the competition as a platform which gives voice to an entire generation, including young artists and the general public. We are doing this in an attempt to initiate, rekindle and engage in an artistic dialogue,” says Magdalena Kąkolewska, President of the Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation. “It can be liberating to leave behind threadbare ways of looking at the world or using objects and to completely reinterpret them,” she adds.
Change your perspective and set off on an artistic journey!
The finalists and winners of the APH Competition will be chosen by the jury in several selection stages. Winners will enjoy one month-long art residencies in Valencia and New York. Moreover, one of the finalists will receive a paid order to develop the artistic concept for the annual statement of ERGO Hestia Group.
Change your perspective and gain recognition beyond the academia!
All the competition-related events are coordinated by the Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation, established in 2014. The Foundation supports the development of the finalists and laureates of the APH competition by presenting their work to the general public in major Polish cultural centres (Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Sopot and Kalisz).
Change other people’s perspectives through your work!
The Hestia Artistic Journey is a year-long programme promoting Polish young art and art education, engaging both the art community and the business circles. The competition is the centrepiece of all the activities of the APH Foundation, which contributes to the creation of an exceptional art collection – a heterogeneous set of works which is in constant development and in a never-ending process of creation, while at the same time being highly compelling and resounding with a magnificent diversity of languages of expression, media and themes addressed by the artists.
Change your perspective and learn more about modern art!
The latest visual identification of the APH competition is dominated by black and white, which symbolise colour asceticism and help to bring out the essence of the message. Designers from the Warsaw-based Super Super studio, drawing inspiration from primitive digital art, blended the asceticism with modern 3D technology to represent the pace of artistic development.
The APH competition invites the public to become active participants of the world of culture. It allows viewers to see sample trends followed in art schools across Poland, while also drawing attention to the individual directions pursued by art students. By visiting the final exhibitions, viewers will experience the contemporary phenomena underpinning modern Polish art and will be able to talk to the artists about their explorations and inspiration. Art is a platform for dialogue and a critical analysis is not the only possible point of departure for approaching it. A change of perspective may reveal many unexplored ways in which to experience art.
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Programme of the 16th Hestia Artistic Journey
9 January 2017: launch of the competition and opening of the entry submission panel
22-23 March 2017: helpdesk for students
24 March 2017: closing of the entry submission panel and start of jury deliberations
27 June 2017: awards gala at the new exhibition pavilion of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw – Museum by the Vistula.
Once again, we would like to invite students to follow the work of the APH Foundation and to take part in the competition. You can already start preparing your competition entry today. 414 students from across Poland took part in the jubilee 15th edition of the programme. We can’t wait to receive the first entries!
Laureates since 2016: Piotr Urbaniec, Olga Kowalska, Hanna Dyrcz, Krzysztof Maniak, Katarzyna Kimak, Ewa Kasperek, Xavery Wolski, Małgorzata Goliszewska, Matěj Frank, Krzysztof Nowicki, Agnieszka Kobyłecka, Cyryl Polaczek, Michał Batorski, Daniel Cybulski, Natalia Bażowska, Ewa Mrowiec, Łukasz Biliński, Łukasz Patelczyk, Anna Wypych, Aleksandra Prusinowska, Marta Antoniak, Marcin Zawicki, Miłosz Wnukowski, Katarzyna Makieła, Magdalena Melin, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Jakub Rebelka, Anna Kloc, Paulina Maksjan, Kamil Lisek, Tomasz Kucharski, Marek Wrzesiński, Anna Waligórska, Marcin Grzęda and Agnieszka Ledóchowska.