Project Room Awards 2018
On 25 January 2019, the Project Room Awards were presented for the second time at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. First Prize and 20,000 PLN went to Karolina Babińska for her exhibition Do It Yourself, and the Second Prize and 10,000 PLN went to Ania Nowak for her exhibition and performance Can You Die of a Broken Heart?
International jury, consisting of: Katarzyna Korczak (chairwoman and artist of the Slavs and Tatars collective), Pablo Larios (Frieze), Jarosław Lubiak (Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art), Karolina Ochab (Nowy Teatr), and Manuel Segade (Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid) decided to award First Prize to Karolina Babińska for her project Do It Yourself. The jury emphasized that the artist, using simple means, managed to create a very complex situation around the U–jazdowski Project Room. Not only did she unveil, but also transformed the institutional ways of organizing, presenting, and promoting her project. She pulled viewers into this game, setting unobvious traps on the road leading from the U–jazdowski’s main entrance to the Project Room exhibition space. In her exhibition, Babińska refreshed the tradition of institutional critique with a sense of humour and the perverse use of "poor" design.
Second Prize – PLN 10,000 – went to Ania Nowak for the project Can You Die of a Broken Heart? The jury applauded the artist for creating an experimental space for her performative video installation. Tackling the subject of the bodily dimension of suffering, she translated scientific medical discourse into a poetic and witty statement. At the same time, she skillfully transferred her experience from the field of choreography and theatre into contemporary art, constructing a highly dramatic situation with minimal means.
The Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art has been supporting and discovering new talents for many years. Since 2012, it has given young artists the opportunity to professionally collaborate on their premiere exhibitions, produce new works of art, and experiment.
Every year, more than thirty experts from all over Poland – curators, directors of cultural institutions, and professors of art schools – submit around 200 portfolios of young artists, from which the U–jazdowski curators invite selected artists to the project.
From April till December 2018, six exhibitions were presented in the Project Room: by Grzegorz Stefański, Maria Toboła, Weronika Gęsicka, Ania Nowak, Karolina Mełnicka, and Karolina Babińska.
The awards evening served as an opportunity for another artistic experiment – the microshow Theatre of War by Dominika Olszowy.
Following the successful 2018 edition, the Project Room will present solo exhibitions by Marta Krześlak, Dom Mody Limanka, Jan Moszumański, Wiktoria Walendzik, Horacy Muszyński, Róża Duda and Michał Soja in 2019. The exhibitions will include projects based on sculptures, objects, drawings, as well as experiments in the fields of visual arts and film, sound art, animations, and video installations.
