The International Awards for Art Criticism Ltd. (IAAC) launches the sixth edition of the Awards this month (IAAC 6) and will hold a launch event for the IAAC 5 publication on Friday 30th of May, 6.30pm-8pm, at the Royal College of Art in Battersea.
The evening will include two panel discussions:
- The IAAC 5 Winner 2018, Wang Huan, in discussion with Gan Zhiyi, Lewis Biggs, Henry Meyric Hughes and Ling Min, followed by
- Sacha Craddock, Brian Dillon, Laura Grace Ford, Rachel Withers, in a conversation led by Juan Cruz, reflecting on the five iterations of the IAAC prize.
About the Awards:
The Awards are explicitly intended to stimulate new critical writing. The aim of these Awards is to support independent critical coverage of contemporary art, away from the immediate pressures of the market, media and private or state patronage. They seek to stimulate good writing, critical thinking, dialogue and research. They are judged anonymously in English, but are open to candidates from anywhere, writing in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held anywhere in the world over the previous twelve months. There’s no age limit, and they are open to all.
This year’s Awards will be as follows:
First prize: 10,000 EUR plus a short visit to Shanghai or London for an essay in Chinese or EnglishFirst prize: 10,000 EUR plus a short visit to Shanghai or London for an essay in Chinese or English
Three equal second prizes of 3,500 EUR for an essay in Chinese or English
These International Awards are open to candidates from anywhere in the world. Submissions will be welcomed from 30th of May 2019 onwards.
The deadline for entries is Sunday 15 September 2019.
Candidates are invited to write a review of 1,500 words or 2,500 Chinese characters on any exhibition of contemporary art, held anywhere in the world between 15 September 2018 and 15 September 2019. There are no restrictions on the contributors, in terms of their age, status or professional background. All submissions will be judged in conditions of strict anonymity.
The international jury for the IAAC 6 will be composed as follows:
- Ami Barak, independent curator and art critic based in Paris; former President of the International Contemporary Art Curators Association (IKT)
- Juliana Engberg, curator, cultural events producer and writer, curator of the Australian presentation at the 2019 Venice Biennale
- Bartomeu Marí, independent curator and writer on art; former President of the International Committee of Museums and Collections of Modern and Contemporary Art (CIMAM)
- Shao Yiyang, Professor of Art History and Theory; Deputy Chair of the School of Humanities, Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), Beijing
Where possible, but only if relevant, please include with your submission a maximum of three images of the exhibition you are writing about, all cleared for publication. Entries must be submitted as a single PDF file no greater than 4MB—i.e. an ‘optimised’ pdf. The entire email should be no more than 5MB and should include an entry form downloaded from the website. A shortlist will be selected for a web publication as well as hard copies published in China only. All entries will initially be sorted and shortlisted by the organisers and academic partners in China and the UK, then translated into Chinese (for English-language submissions) or English (for Chinese-language submissions). Publishing rights of all texts must be assigned to the IAAC, regardless of whether or not they have been previously published.
The International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) are hosted by an international Board, and organised by the China Minsheng Banking Corporation Ltd. (CMBC), the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum and the Royal College of Art (RCA), with the support of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
