Iza Tarasewicz is the winner of “Views 2015 — Deutsche Bank Award.” The prize for young Polish art was presented for the seventh time yesterday at the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw. The “Views Award,” which is endowed with 15,000 euros, is Poland’s most important art prize. The other nominees this year apart from Iza Tarasewicz were artists Alicja Bielawska, Ada Karczmarczyk, Piotr Łakomy, and Agnieszka Piksa.
The “Views” jury honors Iza Tarasewicz for “the artist’s consistence in shaping her own, mature and original artistic language; for exploring matter and primal processes; for reviving art’s cognitive dimension.” Iza Tarasewicz (b. 1981) is a sculptor, draughtswoman, and performer. Her objects and their arrangement elude the opposition between the natural and the artificial. As part of complex practices of interpreting, collecting, deconstructing, and reorganizing material, social, historical, and ideological systems, she attentively tests and transforms simple materials such as clay, plaster, concrete, steel, glass, asphalt or leather.
The three-month work residency at Villa Romana was awarded to Ada Karczmarczyk for her “originality, energy and courage in combining various orders of contemporary culture.”
Works by the nominated artists are on view in the exhibition at the Zachęta, curated by Katarzyna Kołodziej and Magdalena Komornicka, until November 15.
“Views” was jointly initiated by the Deutsche Bank Stiftung, Deutsche Bank Polska, and the Zachęta National Gallery in 2003. The objective of the prize, awarded every other year, is to promote young artists and bolster the artistic infrastructure in Poland. Furthermore, the exhibition at the Zachęta connected with the prize gives young artists a high-publicity platform. Thus, “Views” helps garner the contemporary Polish art scene more international attention.
The cooperation project “Common Affairs” was also spawned by this idea. In the exhibition, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin, Zachęta - National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, and the Polish Institute Berlin jointly present a selection of current positions. At the same time, the show celebrates the 25th anniversary of the German-Polish Treaty of Good Neighborship and the town twinning between Warsaw and Berlin. All of the works will be created by “Views Award” nominees or winners, including Tymek Borowski, Robert Kusmirowski, Anna Molska, Janek Simon, Karol Radziszewski, Rafal Jakubowicz and Karolina Bregula. The exhibition will be curated by Julia Kurz and Stanisław Welbel.
By revisiting past “Views” exhibitions and their commissioned contributions, the invited artists will mainly focus on “updating” the pieces commissioned at that time as well as their artistic practices. This process will enable the artists to highlight the most interesting phenomena and urgent problems they deal with. Common Affairs will present artistic perspectives on the shifts and changes in the Polish and the international art scene, from the “long nineties” up to the present day. It will promote positions that deal with the history and politics of memory and representation, with transformation and approaches to change.
More information at db.com/art and db-artmag.com.
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Views 2015 — Deutsche Bank Award
Until November 15, 2015
Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Common Affairs
July 21–October 30, 2016
Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin
