Celeste Prize 2017 winners talk about their practice


LAURA KUCH, winner, Project Prize

1. Why is Wunderkammer VI relevant today?
Wunderkammer VI is part of a series of installations I have been working on a since 2010. Wunderkammer translates as ‘wonder chamber’ and is the German equivalent to a cabinet of curiosities. Originally it described a collection concept from the late Renaissance and Baroque period. The collections consisted of a wide range of diverse natural history objects and artefacts: from stuffed armadillos, Chinese porcelain, exotic shells, cherry-stone miniatures and alleged unicorn horns. The word Wunder (wonder) in Wunderkammer, does not refer to the notion of biblical miracles or supernatural wonders but to the idea that these collections were aimed at giving rise to amazement and wonder amongst spectators, containing objects that were wonders in the sense of their extraordinary, strange and mysterious nature.
The Wunderkammer series explores the question, what can a cabinet of curiosities of the here and now be, long after the legendary unicorn trophies turned out to be only the tusks of the common narwhale and the last terra incognita on the globe has been explored; after what the sociologist Max Weber called "the disenchantment of the world" – brought about by the Enlightenment and Modernity. Where and how can we still find wonder today? How can we create meaning and knowledge through wonder and how can we explore and appropriate even – or especially – the most common and familiar things not by de-coding them but by continuously wondering about them?
Wonder, and to continuously wonder, means to acknowledge the miraculous and the, what I call, realm-of-the-ever-unknow it provides. This realm creates a space for imagination that, by each of us, can be filled with infinite possibilities of ideas and thoughts depending on our individual experiences, hopes, preferences, longing and interests. Especially in a time like today, where scientific and objective knowledge are habitually accepted as the definite and most validated answer, and where we tend to believe we have access to all knowledge through the internet, I strongly believe we should employ wondering as possible way of examination and knowledge production. Filling the unknown with our own subjective thoughts allows for insights that lie beyond the functionality or the scientific knowledge of things and rather sheds light on our inner selves, as well as the relationship of ourselves with the things around us, and provides us with the possibility to appropriate the world and create meaning and meanings through our own ideas.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
In my Wunderkammer, there are neither dragon’s eggs nor magic potions. Instead you will find many objects that at first sight could be mistaken for everyday objects or familiar materials and motifs. Wonder today, I claim, lies in the poetic potential of the ordinary. What constitutes both my art practice and identity is the desire to re-enchant (at least parts of) the world by searching for, insisting on and pointing out, or revealing, the poetic within everyday things and materials and thereby creating alternative meanings that lie beyond the conventional understanding of them.
As wonder objects my artworks become a part of my Wunderkammer collection – an ever-growing object archive of which I am the creator and collector at the same time.
My work is related to a strand of artistic practice termed Romantic Conceptualism by Jörg Heiser and Jan Verwoert. Although the Wunderkammer is originally a Renaissance concept, I recognise a very Romantic idea behind it: to wonder and to acknowledge the miraculous is the precondition to discover the poetic within things. My practice and research are based on the ideas of German Early Romanticism, a literary and philosophical movement formed by a group of young poets and writers in the city of Jena at the end of the 18th century. The Early Romantic Novalis stated in 1798: ‘The world must be romanticised. In that way one finds original meaning again (…) By giving what is common an elevated meaning, the ordinary a mysterious aspect, the familiar the dignity of the unknown, the finite the appearance of infinity, thus I romanticise it’. Romanticising can take place through a poetic representation of things by the means of poetry and other forms of literature as explored in the Early German Romantics’ writings, but also, I claim, within a fine art practice like mine. The romanticised art-object allows two perceptions at the same time. It hovers between the ordinary, namely the familiar physical object or material itself, and the exalted and poetic, which is revealed by relating the object to an idea or concept. (which may include performative elements or minor alterations of the original object). The idea is then conveyed by the use of language, namely in the title and sometimes also in the material description. What constitutes my artworks from the past years is exactly this combination of components: They are idea- objects representing my romantic mindset encountering the world and exploring the dialectic between real presence and the absence of presence, between material transformation and imaginary transformation, between visibility and invisibility, materiality and immateriality, between finitude and infinity

3. What are your future projects?
I currently experiment with different set-ups of my Wunderkammer installations. I built a big space in my studio which is painted entirely white, including the floor. This space serves as a kind of three-dimensional empty sheet of paper to me in which I try to create various visual-conceptual dialogues by selecting and arranging my artworks in various ways. For that my wonder objects serve as my vocabulary with which I’m trying to ‘write’ arabesque bodies of text that evolve in space, or ‘chapters’ of an ever-unfinished novel.
In a way is do think of myself as poet, a poet that became a visual artist holding the means that fine art offers. Whereas the format of writing in a two-dimensional way is eventually always doomed to formal linearity when read and a certain narrowness – with a set beginning and end – in the (conventional) format of a printed book, my form of writing in space with objects is not bound to such (limiting) formats.
At the moment I’m planning to integrate some of my older artworks in these new installations. I used to work with sound and make sound sculptures in the past and I am curious to explore the concept of a Gesamtkunstwerk by adding an audio element to my installations.

4. In which ways are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
My first impulse was to answer this question with a quote from John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing:
1. That is a very good question. I should not want to spoil it with an answer.
2. My head wants to ache.
3. Had you heard Marya Freund last April in Palermo singing Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire; I doubt whether you would ask that question.
4. According to Farmers Almanac this is False Spring.
5. Please repeat the question …and again … and again …
6. I have no more answers.

On a second thought I will try to give an answer to that huge question on the basis of my hopelessly romantic conviction. Novalis realised: ‘The world has an original ability to be enlivened through me. I have an original tendency and ability to enliven the world’. Novalis and his fellows were highly influenced by the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s subjective idealism. A central aspect of this was that our ‘schöpferische Ich’ – which translates as creative-imaginative self – enables us, in transcendental liberty, to create the world out of ourselves. Like Novalis I believe in our ability to enliven the world and hence to understand ourselves as integral part of the world. Visual art, or much rather art in general, provides an approach by which the world can be shaped embracing the possibilities and power of our original ideas, our own imagination. This approach of the artist can serve as a model and I believe more people need to believe in the power of their creative-imaginative self. I sometimes give workshops to people outside of the art world who work in organisations in which I introduce to them to ways of approaching the world as an artist in the hope that this sparks some change. Yet in order to really change the world or society art and the knowledge of the artist has be become a more intergral and appreciated part of society. For which I hope will happen.


KYU SANG LEE, winner, Photography & Digital Graphics Prize

1. Why is The Festival of Insignificance relevant today?
First of all I do not want to suggest that there is more relevance in my works than in any others. However, contrary to the work’s title I believe there is still significant relevance in the piece, especially in this time where everyone seems to admire only what is extraordinary. I believe that people nowadays have become scared by the word ‘insignificance’. Therefore, I wanted to emphasize and highlight the value of things that we regard as ordinary – but which we all have in common – such as anxiety, fear, friends and love.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
To me the Festival of Insignificance is merely a visual translation of my life during a certain period not so long ago. The work is (literally) a documentation of the time I spent with others and myself around me. Ever since I was young, I have naturally been more of a listener than a speaker. It was always inspiring to listen to someone else’s life, and it is still very important in my general practice. So from time to time other’s experiences appear as subjects or as a visual narrative in my images.

3. What are your future projects?
Broadly speaking, I think my projects in the next year will continue to be a study on relationship between art and time. My interest in time has always been evident in the work that I make, and recently I am becoming more intrigued by artworks or objects that have endured for a long time. Everything from 1000 BC artefacts, to a vintage metronome and to classical music. I feel a strong admiration for art that has survived over such long spans of time, and am always surprised when it still manages to communicate with and move modern individuals. I don’t know exactly how it will turn out visually, but recently I have suddenly become mesmerized by Bach’s Goldberg Variations – which I have listened to since childhood. (Wilhelm Kempff’s recording is literally playing as I am writing this.) Since I purchased an original copy of the piece I am studying each page of the music.

4. In which ways are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
As an artist I realize that the power of mass-media probably has a much stronger direct influence than visual art. Throughout history, visual art was not intended for everyone, and it probably will remain that way in times to come. It is difficult and costly to purchase an artwork, and therefore not everyone can do that. However, there is one way that visual art holds power over other forms of art and that is the fact that it is bound to a material. Materiality can give a sense of ownership. It does
not even have to be an original artwork - and I think that is why postcards and other reproductions that galleries sell can be as important as the real thing.
The more important thing is to be able to be impressed or have an experience in front of an artwork. And especially when it comes to photography, there is something that penetrates your mind and emotions – a feeling which cannot be replaced by other forms of art because while photography is far from reality it often creates the belief that it could be real. And there is something that comes into that gap between belief and skepticism. I would be happy just to see someone standing in front of my work, giving it their attention, and experiencing it for a long time – feeling whatever emotion they feel. In the end I think my works are about love and hope. And it is always important to think about them.


LOVE ENQVIST, winner, Video & Animation Prize

1. Why is Magellania relevant today?
The fact that we are loosing so many languages with all that it implies. The colonization of language. My personal effort to visualize and relate to the ghosts and speak about the unspeakable in what is known as the South, hopefully have many entry points for the audience.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
Magellania is a long term project with many outputs and it tends to be an element of utopia somewhere. The inherent quality of absence transformed into a presence. The documentary and performative aspects of filming that involves displacement. The work also brought me closer to my father.

3. What are your future projects?
A larger installation inspired by the history of the Co-op movement and their archive. A project space in Venice. A Magellania publication breaking up and rebiulding years of research and accumulated material.

4. In which ways are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
The possibility to carve out a space for resistance. The ability to transfer between categories as a hybrid language and be allowed to be confused and complex. I would like to see it as a tool in the search for a different kind of consciousness.


MARIA LUIGIA GIOFFRE', winner, Installation, Sculpture & Performance Prize

1. Why is your winning work 'Penelope's Wall' relevant today?
What I feel is missing today is fairytales. Since the XXI century has come, mankind have been more and more engaged with science and even art is starting to deal with data-analysis and algorithms. Planets and galaxies have been observed and calculated, Gods and Goddesses have fallen apart. Neptune does not scare inhabitants of the sea and Jupiter is visible at the telescope: the magic is sacrified for a hint of knowledge. "Penelope's white wall" might be therefore read a non-positivist novel which responds to an urgency of a wonder.

In particular, the story reinterprets the character of Penelope, wife of Ulysses, king of Ithaca, as described in the Homer's Odyssey. Ulysses leaves the house for twenty years and already after few years, everyone thinks he died. Suitors begin to enter the house of the queen, asking her hand in marriage. Penelope, trustful in the return of Ulysses, wouldn't choose anyone to marry with. For years, she has been weaving a shroud, promising to choose a new husband once the shroud was completed but if by the day she was working on a loom, in the night she secretly was unraveling what she had done during the day. In "Penelope's white wall" we see Penelope painting an wall which does not dry because she paints and re-paints it. The unfinished wall allows Ulysses, traveller and migrant, to be free to go back and forward from the house without restrictions.

Neverthless, once "Penelope's white wall" is installed in a gallery-space, we might say it takes a different relevancy. Audience can experience the ambivalence of the artwork: is the wall being prepared to hang artworks or is this painting the work itself? By this way, "Penelope's white wall" allows to put highlights on the backstage rather than on the stage, on the process rather than on finished pieces.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
The last performance of "Penelope's white wall" at Oxo Tower has lasted for four hours without break. "Penelope's white wall" is first of all a performance which explores duration through a gesture or a single action. Some of my previous works as "Lettere di non-corrispondenza per un vuoto permanente" and "Drown of the origin" do exactly this. "Lettere di non corrispondenza per un vuoto permanente" is a letter which "lasts" for five meters. The letter is written in asemic: a writing practice (some call it automatic writing) which is based on gesture-signing rather than on words-meaning. "Drown of the origin" is a video-piece which look at time through a single action and frame-scene.

In terms of performance, I would say performance might be read as an action, every action as a performance, not only when it takes place on a stage or choosen space. My aim in performance, when taken as aesthetic research, is to go deeply at the seeds of the action, focusing on one single action and exploring what that exact action can narrate.

All my works relate to distance and longing, "Penelope's white wall" somehow makes this too.

3. What are your future projects?
The future is not until it is. I'm actually working on a solo exhibition.

4. Are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
When did they stop to be it?


MENG ZHOU, winner Super-Young Prize

1. Why is Mr. Lei, Rain Rain Rain relevant today?
I really want this piece to make people think about their own individual relationship with the natural environment and begin to appreciate how the the world that we share is at once extremely powerful and yet worryingly fragile. In the wake of the recent and unprecedented weather events in the Caribbean the imperative to respect the natural world has never been more urgent. Human / environmental relations are at a critical juncture and I hope that the symbolism of the solitary man in the thick of the vast wilderness will encourage my audience to take stock of their debt to the natural world.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
My work usually centres, in one way or another, around the human form and on movement. This was actually one of the first pieces of moving image work that I have created and represents a new way of thinking about the body for me. Dance is a constant inspiration for much of my work and I have often used mental images of dancers as the basis for my paintings. Using video as a media allowed me to think more carefully about how movement itself, rather than representations of it, can be used symbolically - about choreography in a sense.

3. What are your future projects?
I am currently working with a group of dancers and performers to create a site-specidfic dance installation - its something that I have wanted to do for a long time and although the plans are still in their formative stages it’s something I’m really excited about.

4. In which ways are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
I was deeply saddened by the recent news of President Trump’s decision to pull the USA out of UNESCO because I believe that cultural understanding is imperative to human solidarity. The arts have a really unique capacity to draw human beings together and to create dialogue. They make us think about the world in new and creative ways and they act as conduit for new types of questions and new types of answers. In that they serve as a reminder of our shared human heritage the arts could not be any more valuable to us. I think that it is the duty of artists to highlight and to challenge the injustices of the day and to bring them to light.


JONATHAN DI FURIA, winner, Painting & Drawing Prize

1. Why is 'Soft corners' relevant today?
The interdependence between man and the environment is a current topic, today more than yesterday.

2. How does the work fit in with your general practice?
'Soft Corners' is just a puzzle card, I’ve always focused my attention on the precariousness of the human condition.

3. What are your future projects?
To proceed with a collaboration with some finalists of Celeste Prize 2017.

4. Are the visual arts still a motor for change in our society?
Art may help us see the world from different perspectives, art can influence the way we think, art can also contribute to change, but I personally think art does not have the power to change the world or our society, however, the artist may have the honor and perhaps the burden of translating the change into images. Seize the zeitgeist, this is the real big challenge.