By European Cultural Foundation (ECF).
The European Cultural Foundation (ECF) awarded the 2015 ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture to two courageous cultural institutions – the Athens Biennale (Greece) and the Visual Culture Research Center (Ukraine).
Attended by more than 350 international guests, the award ceremony was hosted by ECF’s Director Katherine Watson at the Centre of Fine Arts, BOZAR, in Brussels. The laureates received the award from HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, while the opening speech was given by HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, ECF’s President. “What culture can do – and does – is put the issues on the table, visualising the different angles, opinions and facts pertaining to the issues at hand and then creatively visualising the very core of the problem and alternative solutions”, said Princess Laurentien.
During his introductory remarks, Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, said: “One of the biggest challenges in Europe today is that we are all very good at speaking but we are not so good at listening”.
The international jury – which includes Tate Modern Director Chris Dercon and Columbia Global Centers Programme Manager in Turkey Rana Zincir Celal – praised this year’s laureates, who were chosen from a shortlist of candidates nominated by experts from across Europe.
“Both Kiev and Athens are cities that are being redefined, in fact their struggles are highly representative of struggles elsewhere in Europe and beyond. In this complex period of redefinition, the laureates are ensuring that culture, expression and freedom are part of the formulation of new trajectories.”
In their laudatio, special guests Georg Schöllhammer (Editor in Chief of the magazine springerin – Hefte fur Gegenwartskunst in Vienna and Head of tranzit.at) and Adam Szymczyk (Artistic director of documenta 14) also spoke highly of the two laureates.
The award ceremony, and subsequent reception were likewise attended by HI&RH Princess Astrid of Belgium, The Duchess of Modena, Archduchess of Austria-Este and her daughter-in-law, HI&RH Archduchess Elisabetta of Austria-Este, Hereditary Princess of Modena, wife of Amadeo of Belgium as well as Royal Dutch bilateral ambassador to Belgium, HE Mr. Henne Schuwer.
For a photo-album on the event, please click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/sets/72157651342189849/
About the laureates
The Athens Biennale has re-imagined the model of the art biennale as a collective space for cultural debate and grassroots organising in contemporary Greece – encouraging wider civic engagement and solidarity locally and internationally.
The most recent biennale in 2013 was organised in the format of an agora for contemporary times. The biennale took an innovative collective curatorial approach that breaks radically from a consumer-oriented model of exhibition-making, demonstrating the power of self-organisation and building common ground through culture.
The Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in the Ukraine capital of Kiev in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academics, artists and activists and is making an unprecedented contribution to the regional cultural debate. Led by a dynamic and engaged group, the centre connects diverse audiences from Ukraine and beyond, helping to develop a more complex understanding of how art and critical cultural thinking can equip us with skills like open-mindedness and imagination that are so vital to a progressive democratic society.
The award ceremony was preceded by a conversation with the laureates about their work, moderated by Massimiliano Mollona, London based theorist and writer, in a thought-provoking exchange reflecting on situations of crisis and the way their cultural practices are a means for rethinking Europe’s public sphere from its so-called peripheries.
Mollona delivered a lecture at KU Leuven in Brussels the morning after the award ceremony entitled Value Struggles: Precariety, informality and the new European urban commons.
The ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture – a tribute to HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, who served as ECF’s President from 1983 to 2007 – is given to European cultural change-makers whose work shows the power of cultural engagement in making social and political change possible. First presented in 2008, the annual Awards have been won by trailblazing activists, choreographers, theatre and film-makers and visual artists – ranging from the renowned late cultural theorist Stuart Hall to Romanian artists Dan and Lia Perjovschi. The laureates between them receive prize money of € 50,000.
A full list of Princess Margriet Award jury members for 2015 includes:
– Bojana Cvejić (performance theorist and maker, Brussels/Belgrade)
– Chris Dercon (Director, Tate Modern, London)
– Christian Esch (Director, NRW Kultursekretariat, Wuppertal)
– Rana Zincir Celal (Programme Manager, Columbia Global Centers Turkey and Executive Board Member, Anadolu Kültür, Istanbul)
– Saskia van Stein (Artistic Director, Bureau Europa, Maastricht)
A full list of Princess Margriet Award for Culture laureates
2015 Athens Biennale | Visual Culture Research Center
2014 Teodor Celakoski | Teatro Valle Occupato
2013 Yoel Gamzou | Lia & Dan Perjovschi
2012 Charles Esche | John Akomfrah
2011 Kutluğ Ataman | Šejla Kamerić
2010 Borka Pavićević | Stefan Kaegi
2008 Stuart Hall | Jerôme Bel & Pichet Klunchun
For more information:
European Cultural Foundation: www.culturalfoundation.eu
Princess Margriet Award: www.princessmargrietaward.eu
Athens Biennale: www.princessmargrietaward.eu
Visual Culture Research Center: http://www.vcrc.org.ua/en.htm
European Cultural Foundation (ECF) By collaborating with creative intellectuals and artists from all over the world, ECF has been a staunch supporter of culture in Europe for the past 60 years, believing that culture engages people and can inspire them to solicit new approaches to established concepts of democracy. ECF considers the power of culture to be an essential component in the creation of a more open and inclusive Europe. In her capacity as ECF President, HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands is an active proponent of ECF’s mission.
All photographs Maarten van Haaff (http://www.maartenvanhaaff.nl/)
