The Open Call for the Social Art Award 2019 under the topic “We are the People – Peaceful Revolutions” was closed on December 15, 2019. We are very impressed by 558 submissions that were contributed by artists coming from 65 countries across all continents.
The winners of The Social Art Award 2019 are Narcissa Gold (USA), Melinda Mouzannar (Lebanon) and Bogna Grazyna Jaroslawski (Poland/Germany). The Honorary Mention goes to Kingson Kin Sing Chan (Hong Kong/UK).
Below you find the artworks, that passed the initial jury round. The public voting took place till 30 December and is a tool to give more public visibility to the topic and the artworks. It does not replace the final jury judgment. There were two wildcards for the most voted artworks that entered the final shortlist.
The focus diversity of applications shows that artists are active in the multi-faceted fields of socially engaged art reflecting on wars, genocides, femicides, traumata, violence against refugees, children, women, men, disabled people, LGBTIQs, animals. They share feelings for the planet and its living species, but also showing hopelessness due to complex crises be it climate change (e.g. in regard to water pollution), capitalism, corruption, a violation against human rights, nature, protected national parks. Many of the artists are constantly trying to give a voice to the poorest or empower unheard social groups.
It’s not only about peaceful revolutions, but it’s also about feeling a deep connection and showing love and respect for each other.
Thank you all for sharing your great and inspirational work and look at all the great contributions!
Reuf
Zemir VELATOVAC
open category
The project, entitled Reuf (this is the Bosnian masculine name). I chose it as anagram of the word refugee. This is the installation of the clothes of a fictitious person that I disconnected and I stretched in the wall until tearing. With this gesture, I would like to show the weight of a refugee's life in which the extended clothes would be the mark of a refugee's movement and wandering. I imagined this project as a paradigm of the feelings of a refugee. With this project I wanted to personify the problem of refugees who is currently too much to globalize and politicize what makes dehumanizes this problem. So, I tried to enhance the singularity versus the media presentation of a group of people. Plastically it is a work on the relationship of volume to photography, where commitment of an object in a new space redefines the object. The project can take the form of an installation or photos. Also with the installation I have a video which is in the form of a triptych. You can watch the video at this link: https://youtu.be/T5XVyyPi-j0 Video is three visions of refugee status. In the first part the man repetitively washes his face, second party is composed of images of Rorschach test in book mixer with wandering in city Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States and third party shows a bear swimming circularly and perpetually in a small pool in a zoo. It is a psychological video on a question of singularity in contemporary society. How can art catalyze change?: The concept of inclusive society, in its broader form, is for me the key to solving today's social perturbations. From this, through my art, I promote singularity as the basis of an inclusive society.
The project, entitled Reuf (this is the Bosnian masculine name). I chose it as anagram of the word refugee. This is the installation of the clothes of a fictitious person that I disconnected and I stretched in the wall until tearing. With this gesture, I would like to show the weight of a refugee's life in which the extended clothes would be the mark of a refugee's movement and wandering. I imagined this project as a paradigm of the feelings of a refugee. With this project I wanted to personify the problem of refugees who is currently too much to globalize and politicize what makes dehumanizes this problem. So, I tried to enhance the singularity versus the media presentation of a group of people. Plastically it is a work on the relationship of volume to photography, where commitment of an object in a new space redefines the object. The project can take the form of an installation or photos. Also with the installation I have a video which is in the form of a triptych. You can watch the video at this link: https://youtu.be/T5XVyyPi-j0 Video is three visions of refugee status. In the first part the man repetitively washes his face, second party is composed of images of Rorschach test in book mixer with wandering in city Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States and third party shows a bear swimming circularly and perpetually in a small pool in a zoo. It is a psychological video on a question of singularity in contemporary society. How can art catalyze change?: The concept of inclusive society, in its broader form, is for me the key to solving today's social perturbations. From this, through my art, I promote singularity as the basis of an inclusive society.