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!
anti-fetish
Katja Struif
open category
Guns are objects of power and desire. They appear to be sexy, cool, magical - a gun is a fetish. „anti-fetish“ is a series of photos taken from objects that no longer exist (#1 shrivelled, #2 dried up, #4 melted) and objects that have never existed (#3 manipulated Heckler&Koch G36-gun, #5 assembeld dog shit). The series displays a disturbing assortment of guns: anti-fetish#1 is soft and greasy anti-fetish#2 got shot itself anti-fetish#3 shoots at the ego anti-fetish#4 is pissed anti-fetish#5 hit the shit. 5 digital prints on forex, each 30 cm x 45 cm, 2017 How can art catalyze change?: It‘s not easy to achieve peaceful conflict management. One cultural obstacle is the perception of weapons. Popular culture considers guns to be cool. The arms industries profit from the cult status. But cultural professionals created the cult in the first place. It‘s up to us to change that.
Guns are objects of power and desire. They appear to be sexy, cool, magical - a gun is a fetish. „anti-fetish“ is a series of photos taken from objects that no longer exist (#1 shrivelled, #2 dried up, #4 melted) and objects that have never existed (#3 manipulated Heckler&Koch G36-gun, #5 assembeld dog shit). The series displays a disturbing assortment of guns: anti-fetish#1 is soft and greasy anti-fetish#2 got shot itself anti-fetish#3 shoots at the ego anti-fetish#4 is pissed anti-fetish#5 hit the shit. 5 digital prints on forex, each 30 cm x 45 cm, 2017 How can art catalyze change?: It‘s not easy to achieve peaceful conflict management. One cultural obstacle is the perception of weapons. Popular culture considers guns to be cool. The arms industries profit from the cult status. But cultural professionals created the cult in the first place. It‘s up to us to change that.