Which artwork deserves a $100,000 award -- water spilled on the floor, or a chair with a stone on it? This is the choice ahead, after the PinchukArtCenter opened an exhibition of 21 contemporary artists from around the world on Oct. 30.
They are competing for the very first Future Generation Art Prize, founded and sponsored by Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk earlier this year.
It is a biannual award for contemporary artists, regardless of their nationality. More than 6,000 applicants from 125 countries applied for the competition. Later, the selection committee narrowed the list down to 21 participants, including Artem Volokytin from Ukraine.
Unsurprisingly, the award of $60,000 in cash and $40,000 as a grant for future works drew a lot of attention to Ukraine. Famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is on the jury panel. Artist Damien Hurst and singer Elton John will make sure the winner lives up to the award. The winner will be announced after Jan. 9, but for now visitors can view the display but not touch anything.
Wilfredo Prieto Garcia‘s square-shaped watermelon is called ‘Politically Correct.’ (Courtesy)
On the opening night right after Halloween, many visitors looked skeptical mocking some art works and questioning the value of others.
Most of them failed to recognize a masterpiece in a blank wall with a phrase written across it in small print: “This wall has no image but it contains geography.” Swedish artist Runo Lagomarsino said it should make you rethink definitions of an image and geography.
Installation “Holy Water” by the Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto Garcia confused visitors as well. His artwork – water spilled on the floor, made art goers wonder if the roof was leaking, or someone had accidentally spilled a bottle of water. The security man’s job on that night was to guard a puddle and explain that it’s actually art on display. Garcia said he wanted to draw attention using absurdity and humor.
Some artworks, however, did make one stop and admire. Nicholas Hlobo from South Africa used colorful ribbons stitched to the walls to create images of weird creatures like a colorful tree and a salamander.
Stitch work by Nicholas Hlobo from South Africa recreates a tree.
Animation attracted a lot of visitors, especially teenagers and parents with children. Many enjoyed Swede Natalie Djurberg`s cartoons, which featured colorful people made of plasticine (blu-tack) who were unexpectedly turning violent on screen.
Drawing lovers gathered in front of German Jorinde Voigt`s work. Complicated shapes and forms reflecting mathematical precision and attention to detail look like grey mechanical design drawings. Yet if you step back, they may remind you of puffy and misshaped clouds. They surely took lots of time and talent to be put together.
While young artists are competing for a bit of Pinchuk`s fortune, already established Japanese artist Takashi Murakami exhibits at the PinchukArtCenter, but on a different floor. Several classic works, like “Funky Flowers,” “Mr. DOB in a Strange Forest” and “Emperor with New Clothes” actually present a modern take, not experiment, on art.
PichukArtCentre never fails to amuse and shock visitors, be it Hirst’s controversial cow corpses in formaldehyde or Garcia’s puddle of water spilled on the floor.
Victor Pinchuk, founder of the PinchukArtCentre (L) and Ekchard Schneider, head of the PinchukArtCentre.
While many appreciate the controversy of exhibitions, some cannot help wondering if this kind of art is worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the country, where major significant problems remain unattended.
PinchukArtCentre, 1/3-2 Chervonoarmiyska/Baseyna, Block A, 590-0858, http://pinchukartcentre.org/. Until Jan.9 (closed Monday)
Kyiv Post staff writers Nataliya Horban and Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at horban@kyivpost.com and tuchynska@kyivpost.com
