press releases
Press release
European Media Art Festival, 22 - 26 April 2015
The Awards
An entertaining award ceremony marked the end of the 28th European Media Art Festival on Sunday evening, 26 April. About 170 art-works participated in the competition for the offered awards, two jurys awarded four prizes, all together with a prize money of 8500 euros.
An international jury awarded the EMAF Award and the ARTE Creative Newcomer Award and also the Dialogpreis of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This jury was made up of Abina Manning (USA), Olaf Stüber (D) and Peter Zorn (D).
This year, the EMAF Award, given to trend-setting works of media art, went to Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby and “Dear Lorde” (CA 2015), an installation that can still be seen at the EMAF exhibition until May 25, 2015. They also won a prize money of 3000 euros.
The ARTE Creative Newcomer Award, with 2.500 euro prize money, was awarded to Kevin B. Lee and his film “Transformers: The Premake (A desktop documentary)” (US 2015, 25:00 min). The money is supposed to support a new production of the prize winners that will then be shown at EMAF 2016 as well as on ARTE Creative.
The Dialogue Award, awarded by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote intercultural exchange, was equally assigned to two creative works: The film “La Fièvre” (F 2015, 40:00 Min) by Safia Benhaim and the art project “European Border Watch” by Georg Klein. They also shared the prize money of 2000 euros.
The Verband der Deutschen Filmkritik (VDFK e.V.) awarded the EMAF-Medienkunst-Preis of the VDFK for the best German art-work, along with 1000 euros, to Verena Westphal and „sry bsy“ (D 2015, 3:23 min).
Moreover, the jury honorably mentioned Stephan Köperl and Sylvia Winkler and their film “Smart Songdo Song”.
The “Verband der deutschen Filmkritik e.V.” appointed Dr. Günther Agde, Ruth Schneeberger and Carolin Weidner to the jury.
EMAF cordially congratulates all award winners and thanks the jurys for their great work.
For further information on the awards, please contact Kerstin Kollmeyer, presse(at)emaf.de.
For more information on jury comments and filmstills click here!
Press release
European Media Art Festival, 22 - 26 April 2015
Irony in Media Art – Subversive Interventions
Ironic interventions and major and minor rebellions in Media Art are the topic this year at the 28th European Media Art Festival from 22 to 26 April 2015 and in the accompanying exhibition from 22 April to 25 May 2015.
Irony in Media Art ranges widely, its cosmos is enormous. Not only does irony serve as background entertainment, it is also a means of analysis, classification and criticism. The stylistic device of irony is used by artists in order to criticise social conditions, to question policies, and to exaggerate portrayals to such an extent that the viewer gains completely new perspectives on the matter.
Artists’ intelligent wit, their none-too-serious handling of consumerism or of images from cultural history and their passion for discovery often provide unexpected solutions somewhere between subtle comments and biting sarcasm.
Choosing from a total of 2,400 entries, the curators are currently putting together a festival programme that will additionally portray the entire spectrum of contemporary media artwork. Newcomers and established artists will find a platform here for their latest positions.
This year, the film programme will once again be curated by a four-member selection committee: in this connection, EMAF’s Ralf Sausmikat will be supported by freelance curators Joke Ballintijn from the Netherlands and Stefanie Plappert from Frankfurt, and the Dutch artist Sebastiaan Schlicher. They are creating a varied programme consisting of short and feature-length films, music clips and documentaries.
The exhibition, curated by Hermann Nöring and Ralf Sausmikat, the main part of which will be hosted at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück from 22 April to 25 May 2015, will be spread over various locations in Osnabrück’s Old Town during the festival. The exhibition will showcase items by artists such as Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby (CAN), Phil Collins (GB), Annette Hollywood (D), Etoy (CH), Paolo Cirio (IT), Istvan Kantor (CAN), Egill Saebjörnsson (ISL), Georg Klein (D), Roee Rosen (ISR), Christian Falsnaes (DAN), Christian Jankowski (D), Meggie Schneider (D) and Marcello Mercado (BRA/D), including light and sound art, video projections and objects that explore the topic of “Irony as subversive intervention”.
The subject of irony will also play a role in the festival’s conference, organised by Alfred Rotert. There will also be lectures and debates about other topics relevant to the media art scene.
The student-led element of the festival, Media Campus, is dedicated to a number of film programmes as well as the showcasing of various student artists’ installations in the exhibition. In this connection, EMAF will be cooperating especially this year with the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), the Academy of Fine Arts Münster, Osnabrück University (School of Educational and Cultural Studies) and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (“Media & Interaction Design” study programme).
If you have any questions or require visual material, please contact Kerstin Kollmeyer at presse@emaf.de.
