Xie Yumin, Deputy Head of Pudong New District, made a speech.
The prize ceremony of the Second International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) was held in Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum (M21) on November 29, 2015. The first prize goes to David Balzer from Canada and the second prizes go to Zhang Wei from China and Andrew Weiner from America respectively. The first prize winner will get a cash award of 6,000 Euros and full sponsorship of exchange in Shanghai in spring 2016 for two weeks; the second prizes will each consist of a cash award of 2,000 Euros.
Henry Meyric Hughes, Honorary Chairman of
the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and Board Chairman of IAAC, made a speech.
The 2nd IAAC have received 261 Chinese and English entries, among which 180 are written in English and 81 in Chinese. English entries come from 47 countries and regions including UK, USA, France, Russia, Canada, Egypt and even some middle-east nations such as Lebanon, Pakistan, Israel and Iran. Chinese entries mainly come from such regions as Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Hang Zhou and Taiwan, as well as overseas countries such as France, USA, UK and Germany.
Gan Zhiyi, Director of M21, delivered a speech.
Wide regional contributions diversify the works of this session of awards. Henry Meyric Hughes, Board Chairman of the IAAC marked that the juries are impressed with the range and variety of the submissions, which shows that good writing and critical engagement are in plentiful supply, even if they are not always given the space they deserve in the media.
Marek Bartelik, Chairman of AICA, made a speech.
Marek Bartelik (Chairman of AICA) and Juan Cruz (jury member of IAAC and Dean of Royal College of Art, London) made comments.
In addition to extend the submission period to give more thinking and preparation time for the candidates, the deliberate choice of an exhibition review format, restricted to 1,500 word or 2,000 Chinese characters, is to encourage the candidates to get rid of the longer, essayistic form, most familiar from the specially commissioned catalogue essay and bring back substance to the in-depth review that is increasingly displaced by promotional literature of all kinds.
Lewis Biggs, jury member of IAAC and independent curator, delivered a speech.
Ling Min, jury member of IAAC and Associate Professor of the Department of Art History and Criticism in College of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, made a speech.
The IAAC 2 is hosted by IAAC organizing committee, organized by the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum (M21) and Artemis Space, in partnership with the Royal College of Art (RCA), London and International Association of Art Critics (AICA). The principal sponsors are the China Minsheng Bank Corporation Ltd (CMBC), Shanghai Minsheng Art Foundation and Anxin Trust Co., Ltd. Particularly worthy mentioning is that the Awards have obtained high attention and great support from culture departments of Shanghai municipal and district governments.
Henry Meyric Hughes, Honorary Chairman of International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and Board Chairman of IAAC, issued the certificate to Zhang Wei, Second Prize Winner
Zhang Wei, Second Prize Winner of IAAC, delivered his acceptance speech.
The guests took a group picture.
Introduction of Prize Winners
First Prize: David Balzer
David Balzer, now living in Toronto, is a writer, critic and teacher. He has written articles about art and culture for such magazines and newspapers as The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Modern Painters and The Believer. Currently, he has two books published, Contrivances, collection of short stories and Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else. At the same time, he also serves as a contributing editor for MOMUS and deputy editor for Canadian Art.
Article: "Douglas Coupland Doesn't Care About You"
Exhibition: Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything
Second Prize Joint Winner: Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei is a scholar, curator, and artist. He is a visiting scholar of CityU MFACM and doctoral candidate of Fine ArtCAA Inter-media school on Curation. He received his BA in Building Automation Engineering, and MA in philosophy at Tongji University, and now he works on Chinese contemporary culture study, art criticism, game theory and curation, with publications including Map of Culture in the 20th Century (series periodicals), Culture Criticism: The Theories and Practice of Cultural Philosophy (co-author) and The Boundary of Contemporary Art (to be published). He is a long-term contributor for many domestic academic journals and art magazines.
Article: "Kabakov with his Belt Ripped"
Exhibition: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Dream City
Second Prize Joint Winner: Andrew Weiner
Andrew Weiner is Assistant Professor of Art Theories and Art Criticism in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University Steinhardt. He once lectured art theories and provided research guidance in the Graduate Programme in Curatorial Practice at University of California, Los Angeles. He received his PhD in Rhetoric from University of California, Berkeley, with the thesis theme of Relation Change of Aesthetics and Politics in West Germany and Austria around 1968. His studies aim to explore contemporary art, criticism philosophy and circuit between the media and politics and he also composes articles for all kinds of periodicals. Currently, he is editing a thesis collection, discussing the new emerging forms of discourse since 1980s, which is to be published in 2016.
Article: "Surround Audience"
Exhibition: Surround Audience: New Museum Triennial 2015
List of Chinese Entries
Pu Yingwei, master candidate at Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France
Liang Baoshan, doctoral candidate in culture research at Chinese University of Hong Kong
Yu Bingxia, media professional
Gu Qianfan, studying art history at Hunter College, New York
Gu Ling, media professional
Wang Yi, staff of art institute
Jin Xuecen, studying art history at Sorbonne University
Yang Shihan, curator
Yang Beichen, doctoral candidate at Beijing Film Academy