Han Nefkens—a 2019 recipient of the Montblanc Arts Patronage Award—donates his prize to Afghan artist Aziz Hazara, enabling Hazara to produce new works as part of a new Han Nefkens Foundation Mentorship Grant.
The Han Nefkens Foundation Mentorship Grant will allow Aziz Hazara (born 1992, Kabul, Afghanistan, where he lives and works) to participate in the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts ) Post-graduate course in visual art in Ghent, Belgium. Hazara will be able to meet new artists and engage in a different city’s cultural environment. The grant will also allow Hazara to produce several new video installations, two of which have been selected by Brook Andrew, Artistic Director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN, to launch at the exhibition on Saturday, March 14, 2020. Furthermore, Hazara will exhibit the works he produces through the grant in what will be his first ever European solo exhibition curated by Sona Stepanyan, Hilde Teerlinck and Carles Guerra. The opening will take place on October 29, 2020 at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona.
The Han Nefkens Foundation supports emerging international video artists through Awards, Production Grants and Mentorship Grants. The approach of the Foundation is both personal and personalised in an effort to give artists the most precious commodity we have: time. The Foundation works intensively with artists in a made-to-measure way, according to each artist’s needs. They not only produce new work with the artist and find international platforms to exhibit that work, but also finance residencies abroad, produce books, purchase working tools such as new cameras, find technical support, bring the artist into contact with art institutions and other artists, as well as take care of travel arrangements and bureaucracy. Equally important, the Han Nefkens Foundation serves as a sounding board and provides curatorial assistance if required.
Now in its 28th edition, the Montblanc Cultural Foundation Arts Patronage Award, presided by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, is given to arts patrons from across the globe, recognising those individuals whose unrelenting support and commitment gives the arts new ways to flourish. Through their various philanthropic projects, the recipients of the award provide artists with the freedom and the resources to push boundaries, challenge minds and develop new ideas.
Han Nefkens Foundation
The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organization that was founded in Barcelona in 2009 by Dutch writer and patron, Han Nefkens. It aims to promote art and the artistic process, and in turn, to connect people through art by collaborating with renowned international art institutions. The Foundation’s founding values have defined it from the beginning as an innovative and forward-thinking model: a production hub that oversees and promotes contemporary creation from the very first moments until the final presentation. Positioned as a platform for artists to advance in their careers, its main activity—always at the international level—is to commission video works through its awards and grants.
