Anja Kirschner & David Panos win
2011 Film London Jarman Award
Politically Infused Artist Duo Win Esteemed
Artist Film-making Prize Worth 30,000 GBP
London based artist film-making duo Anja Kirschner and David Panos have won the 2011 Film London Jarman Award, announced at London’s Whitechapel Gallery on Monday. As winners, Kirschner and Panos received 10,000 GBP in prize money and a Channel 4 commission, worth 20,000 GBP, for five short films to be broadcast on UK national television as part of the Channel’s new art strand ‘Random Acts’.
Launched in 2008, the Film London Jarman Award gives recognition and support to artists working with the moving image and whose work resists conventional definition, encompassing innovation and excellence. The Award is inspired by visionary avant-garde film-maker Derek Jarman, one of the most esteemed and controversial artists of the late 20th Century.
Kirschner & Panos were selected from a shortlist of 10 artists by an acclaimed jury panel including Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery; Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director, BFI London Film Festival; Avi Grewal, Channel 4 Documentaries; Mark Rappolt, Editor, ArtReview; and Chaired by Stuart Comer, Film Curator, Tate Modern.
The jury panel said of Kirschner & Panos: “Working fluidly between cinema and gallery practice, their collaboration draws on a broad range of genres from film, theatre and literature. They mine different registers of cultural history to unmask elusive narratives of conflict and corruption. Kirschner and Panos have produced a distinguished body of work whose sophistication and activist spirit impressed the jury, who are delighted to award them the 2011 Jarman Award.”
Kirschner (b. Munich, 1977) and Panos (b. Athens 1971)’ collaborative films collide popular culture references, historical research and literary tropes and re-imagine the past in order to interrogate the future. They create ambitious, richly layered films that consider the possibilities for political art and social transformation. Their recent work has increasingly revolved around the nature of performance and narrative construction and their role in the formation of subjectivity and political agency.
The 2011 Jarman Award shortlist included Ed Atkins, Claire Hooper, Torsten Lauschmann, Elizabeth Price, Laure Prouvost, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Clio Barnard, Corin Sworn and Imogen Stidworthy.
