26.3.2010
The winners of the third competition T-HTnagrada@msu.hr were announced tonight in the Museum of Contemporary Art. The leading telecommunications operator T-Croatian Telecom organized the competition also this year as part of a several year partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU). The first acquisition prize in the amount of 75,000 kunas was awarded to the artist Igor Grubić for his artwork East Side Story. The second prize, worth 70,000 kunas, went to Marijan Crtalić and his artwork The Invisible Sisak – Phenomenon Ironworks and the third prize, worth 65.000 kunas, was won by Marko Tadić and his artwork I Speak True Things. The best three works of art will be displayed in T-HT's museum collection which already boasts some of the best works of contemporary art by young artists who have been awarded during previous competitions.The prizes were presented by Maja Weber, Director of Public Relations Department of T-Croatian Telecom and Snježana Pintarić, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
"It is obvious that Croatian cultural and professional audiences see the competition T-HTnagrada@MSU.hr as one of the most important events for Croatian contemporary art. We are pleased to learn that a number of experts think, without reservation, that the competition provides a true picture of Croatian artistic production, together with excellent response and an impressive list of artists“, said Maja Weber, Director of Public Relations Department of T-Croatian Telecom.
The artwork of the first prize winner Igor Grubić East Side Story is a two-channel video-installation (14') in which the artist juxtaposes documentary materials with a highly stylized work of art, advocating tolerance and understanding for a segment of people whose sexual orientation causes a stir among many people and social groups. The artist reproduces on a video channel authentic TV coverage of demonstrations organized by these groups protesting in 2001 in Belgrade and 2002 in Zagreb against and preventing activists from their participation in Gaypride. The second part of the installation is an artistic intervention in the form of dance choreography on the location where demonstration in Zagreb took place. Grubić uses artistic methods and ideas in public space in a professional manner, reproducing and criticizing our acceptance of violence, all with a view to showing that political language of art is still possible at the time of omnipresent softening of the media.
The second place went to Invisible Sisak – Phenomenon Ironworks by Marijan Crtalić, a multi-media installation from 2009 in which the artist tries to convey to the observer the realm of socialist zeal by archiving and interpreting the processes and products in the Ironworks and its artists' colony in Sisak (his birthplace). In the film Industrial Paradise he interviews workers who talk about their historical experience – the time when sculptures were created in the artists' colony and the present day. The artist collects documentary materials (archive photographs, newspaper clippings and documents) and compares them with the present moment depicted through photographs, design and video. Crtalić does not criticize, but rather combines creativity quality as an accompanying category of self-governing socialism and creativity in the sense of art. On the other hand, he does not dispute the effect of ideology which leaves traces: an abandoned plant, but also a corroded iron sculpture. The artist articulates his need to recognize the preservation of cultural heritage, regardless of ideological context.
The work of art of the second prize winner Marko Tadić I Speak True Things from 2009 is a stop animation (6') with twenty drawings on old maps and a wooden installation. Marko Tadić uses this ambient installation to describe the eternal quest for a mythical island and presents an extraordinary aesthetically articulated creation which evidences that there are no boundaries in creative expression, but at the same time embraces possible social, political and cultural elements of the present time and ages behind us. Tadić reduces an imaginary situation to the point of absurdity by adding a scent of fresh soil and moss to wooden installation, i.e. simulation of wooden house made of boards washed ashore on the found island. It is possible to reconstruct a mythical situation of searching for and – paradoxically – founding the lost island in a museum space, but it remains a secret how the island was actually found and who had the privilege of searching for it, apart from the artist himself.
A total of 232 artists of all generations and with different approaches to contemporary visual expression applied with their works of art for the third competition T-HTnagrada@msu.hr. An international committee of experts including Snježana Pintarić, director of MSU, Peter Pakesch, manager of Kunsthaus Graz, Nada Beroš, senior curator of MSU, Ivan Faktor, media artist, Branko Franceschi, director of HDLU and Zdenka Badinovac, director of Modern Gallery Ljubljana had a difficult task of selecting among 40 best works of art for the exhibition and select the best three to be awarded the prizes.
The pieces of art from this year's competition T-HTnagrada@msu.hr have finally been displayed in the new building of the Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition will be open until 28 March 2010 and it will end with the audience award.
After the official part and presenting of the awards the attendees had the opportunity to enjoy the party and the music selected by an interesting DJ trio – Sanja and Švec and the well-known film director Dalibor Matanić at the helm, this time as a DJ at a mixing desk.
The event was also attended by well-known public persons, e.g. Nevena Rendelli, Robert Kurbaša, Mirna Zidarić