International Awards for Art Criticism Launch Second Edition
The International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) launches a second edition this month, having opened its virtual doors for entries to the first ever IAAC competition in 2014. This initial call-out elicited an enthusiastic response from the global community of artists, curators, critics, researchers and students, with 170 English language entries coming from more than 40 countries and 150 entries in Chinese. Jointly organised by the Minsheng 21st Century Art Museum (M21) in Shanghai and the Royal College of Art, in association with the UK section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), the awards aim to support independent critical coverage of contemporary art.
The first year’s winners were announced at a special ceremony and press conference held at M21 in November 2014. The first prize of 6,000 Euros and a fully funded two-week residency in London went to independent art critic and curator Su Wei for his essay in Chinese on a Yan Lie exhibition at Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing. Joint second prizes went to Hanlu Zhang and Joobin Bekhrad, both winning a fully funded travel bursary for a two-week residency in Shanghai or London.
As the second edition of the International Awards for Art Criticism is announced this month, some 20 of the shortlisted entries, alongside these three finalists’ essays, will be included in a bilingual Chinese–English book, due to be published by the IAAC and Occasional Papers in May this year.
The deadline for entries to this second edition of the competition is 15 October 2015, and will be judged by an international jury comprising: Marek Bartelik, Polish-born art critic, art historian and poet, and President of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Paris; Catherine David, writer and curator, and Deputy Director Musée national d’art modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dieter von Graffenried, Publisher of Parkett Magazine, Zurich and New York; Pi Li, curator and art historian, and Sigg Senior Curator, M+, Hong Kong; Yongwoo Lee, President of the International Biennial Association.
Those considering entering will no doubt be scrutinising the work of these trailblazing prize-winners. Catching up with all three at the RCA in London, they discussed their shared belief in the importance and power of the subjective voice and use of ‘I’ in art criticism, and how, in different ways, they all represent the kind of cross-culturally informed thinking and global perspectives that these awards nurture and value.
Joobin Bekhrad, founder and editor of REORIENT, an online publication about contemporary Middle Eastern arts and culture, said that ‘the experience of being caught between cultures often surfaces in my writing. I’m of Iranian origin but I’ve lived my whole life in the West, in North America and Europe – so it’s always been interesting for me to see how these different backgrounds and experiences coexist.’ The statement also rang true for Hanlu Zhang: ‘I received undergraduate and graduate degrees in the USA, so I lived there for six years. Being “caught between cultures” is definitely something I experience and am interested in.’
For Su Wei, it was spending time in Europe that sparked his deeper engagement with art: ‘I’ve never studied art, but I started in 2007 with translating and writing. I spent two years living in Berlin, and its diversity and multiculturalism led me to question the basis of my own practice and involvement with art. After I came back from Berlin, I started working with some artists and curators, and together we built a platform for thinking about the historical frameworks of Chinese contemporary art, and rethinking the written narratives that have existed for the past 30 years or so.’
For Su Wei and Hanlu Zhang, the residency in London has been an opportunity to get involved with activities at the RCA and to explore the art scene and galleries across the city. ‘It’s my first time in the UK,’ said Hanlu. ‘We’ve attended talks and events here at the College, including Why Would I Lie? the 2015 Research Biennial, which was really interesting. The College gave us a very useful list of all the important galleries, so we’ve been visiting those in our own time. Minsheng Art Museum asked us to write a report of the residency, so we’ll do that when we return home.’ Both Su and Hanlu have also been commissioned to write other reviews for various Chinese media while they are here, proving the residency to be a very productive fortnight.
For more information on the International Awards for Art Criticism and details on how to enter, click here.