Startpoint 2020

Prize for european art graduates

Project Curator

Pavel Vančát
Project curator

Jury Members

Marcel Fišer
Director, GAVU Cheb

Lucia Gavulová
Slovak national gallery, Bratislava

Adam Mazur
Curator and editor, Szum Magazine, Warsaw

Hemma Schmutz
Artistic director, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz

Radek Váňa
Curator, Amsterdam

Organizer

Nadační fond současného umění
Havlíčkova 118/5
Brno, 602 00, Czech Rep.

POSTAL ADRESS
Na výtoni 10
12800 Praha 2

CO-ORGANIZERS

KAMPUS HYBERNSKÁ
ARTI ET AMICITIAE
MÁŠ UMĚLECKÉ STŘEVO?

Since springtime, this edition of our selection of European art school graduates has been marked by unusual uncertainty: the global pandemic has led to the cancellation, postponement or virtualization of many traditional graduate exhibitions, which resulted not only in the difficulty of this year’s selection but also in the subjects of many artworks, reacting to the sudden restrictions and to the radical change of universal perspectives. This year’s works thus inadvertently together form a thematic exhibition on the topic of “what to do now and what to do next” and present a proof that the art of the upcoming generation can very consistently reflect the problems of our present.

Since 2003 has StartPoint Prize transformed from a national exhibition of final student works into a prestigious international project, which annually presents the most prominent talents of the emerging art generation from many European countries. In this turbulent year, the project turns back to its roots and focuses more strongly on local art schools, but also on re-connecting with the youngest audience. Therefore we invited as our guests for the Prague exhibition the project Do You Have a Knack for Art?, an international platform focused on contemporary art and ways of teaching it in primary and secondary schools, which this year celebrates 10 years since its inception.

This year, the final exhibition of StartPoint is presented in the HYB4 Gallery at the Hybernská Campus of the Charles University, where eight of this year’s finalists will be exhibited. During October 2020 will also run a residency of the award-winning artists of 2019 (Stephanie Rizaj, Oded Arad, Lenka Glisníková) in Prague, which will culminate in their collective exhibition at the Berlínskej Model Gallery. The main Prague exhibition of StartPoint is traditionally followed by a selective exhibition at the Arti et Amicitiae gallery in Amsterdam during March 2021.

The StartPoint project was created in 2003 at the Galerie Klatovy/Klenová as a competition for graduates of Czech art academies. It soon expanded to the surrounding countries, and in 2009 the award was extended with the Started residency program for award-winning artists. Since 2010, the StartPoint project has become independent and was presented in many prestigious institutions in Czechia (GASK Kutná Hora, Wannieck Gallery Brno, DOX Prague, National Gallery in Prague, Brno House of Arts) and abroad (Bucharest, Bratislava, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Ghent). Since 2017, StartPoint has been under the patronage of the Fund for Contemporary Art, which also manages the renowned Richard Adam Collection. During its eighteen years of existence, hundreds of artists have participated in StartPoint, and all of them together create a unique geographical and temporal cross-section of contemporary European contemporary art in its freshest form.

PROGRAMME

Prague 15. 10–29. 10. 2020
Galerie HYB4, Kampus Hybernská

Amsterdam 5. 3.–28. 3. 2021
Arti et Amicitiae, Rokin 112

The project has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and by the City Hall of Prague.