Tokyo 135-0022
Japan
Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) is pleased to announce that Shiga Lieko and Takeuchi Kota were selected as the winners for the 3rd Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA).
The two winners will receive the monetary prize JPY 3 million and the two years of continuous support such as the funding for overseas activities, the opportunity to show their work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) and the publication of a monograph.
The award ceremony and symposium are scheduled for March 2021 at MOT and will be conducted online streaming too.
The winners were chosen by the International Selection Committee, consisting of: Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Director, Kunstinstituut Melly; Sumitomo Fumihiko, Director, Arts Maebashi / Associate Professor, Graduate School of Tokyo University of the Arts; Takahashi Mizuki, Executive Director and Chief Curator, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile); Carol Yinghua Lu, Director, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum; Washida Meruro, Director, Towada Art Center; Kondo Yuki, Program Director, Tokyo Arts and Space.
Chair of the Selection Committee Comment:
"This year’s selection process was made even more challenging with the continuation of COVID-19 and the impossibility to travel. The majority of jury members couldn’t be at the artist studios physically. Instead, we relied heavily on studio visits and artist presentations on the Internet. Thanks to the superb organization of the TCAA team and the extreme patience and dedication of each artist, we were able to get a very comprehensive and in-depth survey of each artist’s practice.
"With a mixture of jury members who have been involved in this award since the very beginning and new jury members, the discussion before the selection process and during the final deliberation was extremely lively and constructive. There have been a lot of reflections and consideration of how this award has been positioned and organized and how to move forward in the future. There has been a considerable amount of self-reflection on the jury’s part in terms of the criteria of evaluation. In the deliberation meeting, we were able to discuss each artist in detail, conveying each of our views frankly and fully. The final decision was a well-weighed and thoroughly-discussed one.
"At a critical time such as this, when conditions of globalization is subject to challenge and re-examination, TCAA continues to make utmost efforts to connect artists to different aspects of the larger art world. The awards of such an endeavor, supporting artists to continue working and aiming for higher goals, will soon to come to fruition in the near future. As jury members, we are very honored to be part of such an outward-looking and future-looking commitment."
-Carol Yinghua LU
Reasons for the Award
*The whole statement is available here
Shiga Lieko: She is highly acclaimed for her thoughtful and earnest attitude toward her reality and production, her exploration of the equivalence between human spirituality and the nature of the photographic medium, and an original perspective that cuts across the nature of photography and the body. It is of great significance that this award will support her efforts to confront the important elements for reflecting on the society in which we find ourselves in the creation of her future works.
Takeuchi Kota: While his work seems to respond to recent social events in Japan, it is consistent in its concern with the ways in which memory is passed on, the nature of materials as media, and people's passivity to them. His creative practice is highly regarded for its emotional impact and its willingness to engage deeply with the exploration of individual and collective forms of memory. His work presents an awareness of issues that have the potential to be shared by many more people beyond contexts specific to Japan.
About TCAA
The TCAA is a contemporary art award established by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space in 2018 to encourage mid-career artists to make new breakthroughs in their work by providing them with two years of continuous support.
