The Jindřich Chalupecký Award was received by Kateřina Šedá

PRAGUE - The Jindřich Chalupecký Award for 2005 was awarded today at the residence of the Prague mayor to twenty-seven-year-old Brno author Kateřina Šedá. She became the sixteenth laureate of the award for young artists under the age of 35, given by a foundation named after the famous Czech art theorist. In the fifteen-year history of the award, Šedá is only the third female recipient after Kateřina Vincourová and Markéta Othová.
This year's final also included Zbyněk Baladrán, Josef Bolf, Jakub Hošek, Alena Kotzmannová, and Jan Šerých. The laureate of the Chalupecký award receives a six-week scholarship stay in New York, 100,000 crowns for the realization of an exhibition, project, or catalog, and a check for 50,000 crowns from a sponsor.
Šedá's works have a strong sociological aspect. The jury nominated her for the finals for "her commitment in carrying out conceptual ideas in collaboration with rural residents, whom she does not exploit for her art, but rather strengthens their sense of community." Jury chair Milena Kalinovská emphasized the highly local character of the project during the award presentation, which is nonetheless internationally understandable. According to the jury, the works also feature great respect and understanding of fundamental human values.
Šedá engages hundreds of people in her projects. Her most famous project involved convincing three hundred residents of the South Moravian village of Ponětovice. The villagers then spent an entire Saturday engaged in the same activities. The daily routine was compiled by Šedá based on questionnaires previously filled out by the Ponětovice residents. It turned out that they all do nearly the same things on Saturdays.
At the finalists' exhibition, she presents a work titled It Doesn't Matter, dedicated to researching her grandmother's life. She prompted the seventy-five-year-old resigned woman to reflect on her life. The work, which occupied a large part of her life, was documented through drawings, which Šedá published alongside a long interview with her grandmother in the gallery.
Šedá graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of Vladimír Kokolia. She has already received several awards for her work, including a development grant from the Tranzit association and the newly awarded Essel Prize this year.
The works of the winner and the other five finalists can be seen by interested parties at the Final 2005 exhibition, which will take place at the City Library until January 15. At the same time, young creators from Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Slovakia, and Serbia and Montenegro, where similar awards inspired by the example of the Chalupecký Award are given, will also be presented to the audience.
The organizers today, in gratitude for establishing what is now a traditional award, presented a diploma to the widow of one of its initiators, poet Jiří Kolář. Other initiators of the award were Theodor Pištěk and Václav Havel.