Section: New Discovery Award
11 artists under 45 years old proposed by 10 galleries.
During opening week, a jury will bestow the New Discovery Award on the winning artist and his or her gallery in the form of an acquisition to the amount of €15,000. The public will vote for the €5,000 People’s Choice Award.
Amond the artists: Wiktoria Wojciechowska
WIKTORIA WOJCIECHOWSKA: SPARKS
Sparks is a multidimensional portrait of a forgotten but still raging contemporary European conflict: the war in Ukraine. Ukrainians are fighting each other, with government forces on one side and pro-Russian separatists on the other. Wiktoria Wojciechowska went in search of combatants and victims to recount its impact on the lives of ordinary people. The title, Sparks, refers to incandescent shrapnel that mercilessly pierces the walls of houses. Civilians living near the front call it Іскри or iskry, in Ukrainian. Looking up at a hail of burning fragments, they know it is already too late to seek shelter. The “sparks” signal death and fear. Combining photographs, collage, film and symbolic images of armed conflict with pictures and words collected from combatants, Sparks offers several perceptions of war.