Photo: John McRae 2016
The application is available in: Arabic, Spanish, French, and Italian.
The Culture and Arts Programme at the A. M. Qattan Foundation is now welcoming submissions for the Young Artist of the Year Award 2018 (YAYA 2018) that will be curated by the internationally renowned artist Emily Jacir.
The Programme invites artists to propose projects in any medium within the spectrum of the visual arts. Proposals may include, for example, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, moving image, installations, performance and conceptual and socially engaged artistic practices. Applicants should be between 22 and 30 years old at the time of submission (i.e. born between January 1st, 1988 and December 31st, 1995), and should be of Palestinian origin regardless of place of residence. Applicants may also be from the Golan Heights. The proposed artwork has to be conceived and produced exclusively for YAYA 2018, and should not under any circumstances be exhibited before the Award exhibition.
The Curator, Emily Jacir, has stated that the locus of YAYA 2018 will be on themes deriving from the artistic practices of the participants. The curatorial focus for the exhibition will be decided in collaboration with the chosen participants through shared discussions, exchanges and workshops. The Curator’s intention is to create a discourse and discover possible themes based on what cultural, political and social histories the young artists are themselves already exploring in their practices today, rather than imposing a theme onto them. The Curator seeks strong proposals of any kind in any medium. Applicants are encouraged to engage with a wide range of current artistic mediums, practices and research topics. Their research topics will become part of the Curator and the artists' collective discussions and exchanges. Each participant will be expected to share the body of knowledge behind their project with the group, and this will be accompanied by in-depth conversations of the methods and motivations behind the work. Jacir’s idea in leaving the exhibition without a theme is to allow the artist participants in the project to be involved in knowledge production and to re-evaluate and enhance their practices in the context of a broader artistic discourse with their peers as well as invited seminar guests.
The A. M. Qattan Foundation looks forward to receiving mature proposals in which the applicant clearly states the concept of their art project, with the format and media they intend to use and its relevance to the artwork. Applicants are also requested to explain how their proposed artwork relates to their previous artistic productions and experience, and in what way it fits within the context of the development of their art practice.
In celebration of the 10th edition of the Young Artists of the Year Award, a special selection committee consisting of previous YAYA participants will review the Open Call proposals and select 10 finalists based on excellence, commitment, innovation, originality and creativity.
The 10 finalists will be given a period of ten months for the production of their works, which will then be submitted for the final stages of the Award. During these months the Curator and the artists will meet regularly for seminars, discussions, tutorials and workshops. The Curator will assist the artists throughout all the various stages of the production process. The final artworks will be shown in a seven-week exhibition that will open on November 1st, 2018.
Each finalist will be given a production grant of US$ 1,000. A total of US$ 12,000 in prize awards will be awarded to the three winners of the YAYA 2018 by an independent Jury.
The Young Artist of the Year Award, which is named after the late artist Hassan Hourani, is considered one of the most important events in the Palestinian art scene. Since 2000, it has been organised every two years and has engaged renowned artists, critics and curators – such as Mona Hatoum, Okwui Enwezor, Suleiman Mansour, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jack Persekian, Sasha Craddock, Emily Jacir, Samia Halaby, Sharif Waked, Khalil Rabah and Gerardo Mosquera – to act as Jury members.
Applications should be submitted electronically by no later than November 20th, 2017. The finalists will be announced no later than December 2nd, 2017.
To download the Application Form and Guidelines, please visit:
http://www.qattanfoundation.org/en/qattan/applications/young-artist-year-yaya-2018-application-form
For more information, please call +972 (0)2 296 0544, visit www.qattanfoundation.org, or email yaya@qattanfoundation.org