The jury of the Chalupecký Prize selected six finalists

Prague - The international jury of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award selected six finalists from 37 artists or groups last week for this year's competition. The winner will be chosen among Barbora Klímová, Jan Jakub Kotík, Dominik Lang, the Rafani group, Dušan Skala, and Tomáš Svoboda. Dan Merta reported this on behalf of the organizing company.
The traditional exhibition of the finalists' works and the announcement of the winner will take place this year at the House of Art in Brno. The exhibition will run from October 24 to November 26, with the laureate being announced on November 16.
The laureate receives a six-week stay in New York, and the Jindřich Chalupecký Society, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, provides approximately 100,000 crowns for the realization of a project or the publication of a catalog. Additionally, they receive a check worth 50,000 crowns from the general partner to support their further creative development. Last year, the Chalupecký Award was won by Kateřina Šedá.
The jury noted that among the 37 candidates for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, there were a number of talented artists. In selecting from balanced candidates, the jurors preferred new names and lesser-known artists. The Rafani group reached the finals of the competition in 2004.
Barbora Klímová creates objects and situations that bring the effects of spatial relationships closer. The viewer of her works engages in seemingly random interactions that are, however, all the more unexpected and effective.
The precise projects of Jan Jakub Kotík often speak with a politically engaged voice. In his objects, Kotík uses and combines unexpected materials, drawing inspiration from the world of media and its mechanisms. Dominik Lang caught the jury's attention with nearly invisible interventions in the architecture of exhibition halls, where he plays with their meanings and functionality. Alongside institutional critique, his work is characterized by a sense of playfulness and irony.
Dušan Skala's videos utilize found anonymous footage from which the artist assembles fragments of emotionally impactful stories. He works in an original way with music, which elicits feelings of longing and nostalgia alongside the imagery. The subtle interventions of Tomáš Svoboda into the surrounding world seek out and simultaneously question the rules of everyday life that people consider self-evident and unchangeable. In his performances or objects, he expresses a sense of humor as well as exhausting systematicity.