Henkel Art.Award. 2010: 5 Nominees Selected for the Final Gala

Vienna, September 2010

Record number of entries for the art prize sponsored by Henkel Central Eastern Europe

Henkel Art.Award. 2010: 5 Nominees Selected for the Final Gala

Vienna – A international jury of experts led by Karola Kraus, designated director of the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Museum of Modern Art Vienna - MUMOK), has chosen five young artists from Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey and Hungary from among more than 1,000 entries to be the finalists with a chance to win the Henkel Art.Award. 2010. At the same time, the winners of the promotional prizes for talented young Austrian and CEE artists have already been named. The individuals who will receive these various awards and the artist granted the Henkel Art.Award. 2010, including a monetary prize of 7,000 euros, an exhibition in his or her native country and an exhibition at MUMOK in Austria, will first be announced at the gala award ceremony to be held at the Hofstallungen (Imperial Stables) of MUMOK in Vienna on November 25, 2010.

Henkel Central Eastern Europe (Henkel CEE) has been sponsoring the Henkel Art.Award. in cooperation with KulturKontakt Austria since 2002. In the meantime, artists in 31 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia are eligible to submit their works of art. In 2009, the cooperation was extended to include the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Museum of Modern Art, Vienna – MUMOK). As a result, the award winner will also receive an individual presentation of his or her works of art at MUMOK.

In addition to the jury chairperson Karola Kraus, the designated director of MUMOK, the international jury of experts including Maria Vassileva, chief curator at the City Art Gallery Sofia (Bulgaria), Juraj Carny, curator and gallery owner in Bratislava (Slovakia), Dorota Monkiewicz, deputy director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Breslau (Poland) and Basak Senova Muratoglu, independent curator in Turkey, recently convened in Vienna. They selected the five nominees as finalists to win the Henkel Art.Award. 2010 from precisely 1,060 entries. “The really wide range and diversity of artistic positions and media of a young Central and Eastern Europe avant-garde surprised me. I am happy that Henkel CEE, KulturKontakt Austria and MUMOK are making a contribution to promote talented, up-and-coming artists in this region“, says Karola Kraus, designated MUMOK director.

The five young artists named as the finalists with a chance to win the monetary prize of 7,000 euros, an exhibition in their native country and an individual exhibition at MUMOK are Pavel Braila (Moldova), Maksymilian Cieslak (Poland), Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec (Slovenia), Özlem Sulak (Turkey) and Gergely Hory (Hungary).

Attractive promotional prize for promising Austrian artists

Henkel CEE also bestows two promotional prizes, each of which is endowed to the sum of 2,000 euros and are designed to support talented young artists. “In this way, we not only want to promote the numerous young talented artists working in the field of fine arts in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in Austria,” says Günter Thumser, President of Henkel CEE, expressing his pleasure at the large number of entries. The second prize for young artists from the CEE region will be awarded to one of the people taking part in the Artists-in-Residence Program of KulturKontakt Austria.

The jury for the Promotional Prize for Young Austrian Artists, consisting of Martin Hochleitner of the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum, Susanne Neuburger, curator at MUMOK and Annemarie Türk of KulturKontakt Austria, had to choose the award winner from among 74 entries.

Henkel Art.Award. gala on November 25, 2010 in Vienna

The gala award ceremony for the Henkel Art.Award. will take place in the Hofstallungen (Imperial Stables) of MUMOK on November 25, 2010.

Further information is available at http://artaward.henkel.at or at www.facebook.com/HenkelArtAward.

Henkel Central Eastern Europe based in Vienna has management responsibility for business operations in 32 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Henkel is a top provider of detergents, cleansers and cosmetics, and is the market leader for hair cosmetics and adhesives as well as in the surface treatment segment. In 2009, Henkel Central Eastern Europe posted revenues of 2,230 million euros, employing a work force of about 9,500 people. Henkel products have been available in Austria for 120 years, and have been manufactured in Vienna since 1927.

Contact: Henkel Central Eastern Europe

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