Artists Kutlug Ataman and Sejla Kameric receive Routes Award
The European Cultural Foundation (ECF) annually honors artists, activists and thinkers who help to understand and appreciate Europe’s cultural diversity in new and compelling ways with the Routes Princess Margriet Award.
This year’s laureates are the artists Kutluğ Ataman and Šejla Kamerić.
On 8 February the Routes Award will be presented to the laureates at the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels. Both laureates, chosen by the independent international jury will receive EUR 25.000.
In addition to the Award ceremony a conversation with the artists and screening of their work will be shown as part of a public programme in Brussels on February 9th and in Rotterdam on February 10 & 11th.
The laureates
Šejla Kamerić (1976)
The Routes jury praised Sarajevo-born Šejla Kamerić’s originality and independence of mind. Kamerić has received widespread acclaim for her work that combines poignant intimacy and social commentary. The iconic work, Bosnian Girl (2003), for instance, shows Kamerić herself staring out at the viewer above a piece of racist, misogynist graffiti left behind by a supposedly peacekeeping UN soldier from the unit that failed to save 7000 Muslim men and boys in the so-called ‘safe haven’ of Srebrenica. In recent years, Kamerić has focused on filmmaking. Her 4-channel film installation What Do I Know (2007) is set in her grandfather’s house in Sarajevo and movingly reveals how memories are actively constructed rather than passively recalled. Her art has been lauded for ‘exposing the fracture within the broader construction of European identity’. Kamerić’s short film Glück (2009) will be shown during the Routes public programme in Brussels and Rotterdam.
Kutluğ Ataman (1961)
The Routes jury chose Istanbul-born filmmaker and artist Kutluğ Ataman for his ability to link very personal stories with very broad political questions. A work singled out for praise is Küba (2004), an installation showing interviews conducted in a deeply impoverished shantytown outside Istanbul. But his work is not only about amplifying voices off the radar but seeks to explore people’s experiences across society. A new, evolving cycle of works, Mesopotamian Dramaturgies, reveals the artist’s interest in the relations between tradition and globalisation. A key work in the series, Journey to the Moon (2009), will be shown as part of the Routes public programme in Brussels and Rotterdam. Here is an artist whose work defies conventional subject categories, demonstrating that a new aesthetic and understanding can emerge from the transformative power of storytelling.
The Routes Award programme 2011
The Award ceremony
Tuesday 8th February, Royal Flemish Theatre, Brussels
This is an event on invitation. Key-note speaker for this event is Charles Esche, Director of the van Abbemuseum.
If you are from the press and want to receive an accreditation or schedule an interview, please contact Mascha Ihwe at ECF mihwe@eurocult.org or +31 20 573 38 68
Routes public programme Brussels
Wednesday 9 February 2011 at the Royal Flemish Theatre, 19:00-22:00
An evening in conversation with the artists and screening of their films moderated by Dirk Snauwaert, Artistic Director of WIELS.
Register: info@deburen.eu; more info at www.deburen.eu
Routes public programme Rotterdam
Within the context of Art Rotterdam and in cooperation with ZAPP Magazine, two venues will host screenings and discussion of the two ECF Routes Award laureates.
Thursday 10 February 2011: Kutluğ Ataman
14:00 – 16:00 at LantarenVenster, moderated by Iara Boubnova, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia
Friday 11 February 2011: Šejla Kamerić
17:30 – 19:00 at HPM Centre, Westzeedijk 114 (opposite Kunsthal), moderated by Mirjam Westen, curator of contemporary art at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem
Register: entry is free of charge, please register vip@artrotterdam.com; more info atwww.artrotterdam.nl/en/events
More info about the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and the Routes Award at www.eurocult.org/activities/routes-award or contact Mascha Ihwe at mihwe[@]eurocult.org
The ECF Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity is an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Routes Award is generously supported by the Rabobank Foundation.
