The New Heads – BNP Paribas Foundation Art Awards ceremony took place last Wednesday 18 January at HEAD – Genève’s exhibition space LiveInYourHead at the opening which attracted a wide audience of students, teachers and a significant number of professionals from the field of art and culture as well as passers-by interested in discovering the works of this new generation of artists. Awards went to Sabrina Röthlisberger and Gaia Vincensini as well as Galaxia Wang, while Guillaume Dénervaud was granted a prize by the newspaper Le Temps. The artists, who graduated with an MA in Fine Arts
in 2016, feature in curator Jeanne Graff’s exhibition L’Oranger, which will be on show until 19 February 2017.
This year, the jury consisted of Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris Curator, Anne Dressen, Beijing Si Shang Art Museum Director, Linyao Kiki Liu, Francesca Pia, Director of the Gallery of the same name in Zurich, General secretary of The Nestlé Foundation for Art, Rosmarie Richner, and Basel’s LISTE Art Fair Manager, Jacqueline Uhlmann. The jury’s spokesperson, Anne Dressen, highlighted the coherence and diversity of the exhibition, the quality and power of the works presented, and the clarity and richness of the presentations that the artists gave in front of the jury.
The first prize was a tie between Sabrina Röthlisberger and Gaia Vincensini, saluting their innovative approach, which combines a form of poetry with an individual and collective commitment to the world. The second prize, awarded by Switzerland’s BNP Paribas staff, was given by the Foundation’s Secretary General Igor Joly to Galaxia Wang for her immersive installation, which plunges the audience into her bright and colourful world. Each prize worth CHF 12,000 represents significant financial support for the development of these young artists’ work. The award also offers them the opportunity to integrate their work in the collection put together by the BNP Paribas Switzerland Foundation.
Emmanuel Grandjean and Elisabeth Chardon of newspaper Le Temps chose Guillaume Dénervaud for the originality of his drawing, writing and printing work. A multi-faceted work by the artist will be produced in the weeks to come for the newspaper’s collection and will be offered to subscribers during the spring.
Similar to last year, the ArtGenève Art Fair partnered up with the New Heads – Fondation BNP Paribas Art Awards to host a collective exhibition, also designed by Jeanne Graff, that will present the work of all shortlisted candidates from 26 to 29 January. A catalogue of the exhibition will also be available, designed by Jeanne Graff and laid out by Berlin-based Swiss graphic designer Dan Solbach, which includes a series of notebooks and inserts by the exhibiting artists, in addition to some texts and a collective interview with said exhibiting artists, put together by Parisian critic and publisher Catherine Chevalier.
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The curator
Both curator and writer, Jeanne Graff founded 186f Kepler in 2014. She co-founded and ran the Art spaces 1m3 in Lausanne (2006 – 2014) and Graff Mourgue d’Algue in Geneva (2011 – 2014).
She organised exhibitions and events at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, at Francesca Pia gallery in Zürich, at the Anthology Film Archives in New York, at I :Project Space in Beijing, at the Power Station in Dallas and at the Hepworth Wakefield Museum (with Solar Lice group) ; she also organised solo exhibitions for John Armleder, Ericka Beckman, Anne Imhof, Louise Nevelson, Sylvère Lotringer, Juliana Huxtable, Isabelle Cornaro, Tobias Madison, Elsi Giauque, Vittorio Brodmann, Mathis Altmann, Dewar & Gicquel and Stefan Tcherepnin, among others.
Jeanne Graff contributed to the monographic catalogues of Ericka Beckman (Kunsthalle Bern – JRP/Ringier), Drip Event (Power Station, Dallas), and the revue 3AM (London) ; she contributed to MAY magazine (Paris) on a regular basis. Her first short story Vzszhhzz will be published by Semiotext(e) – MIT Press in 2017.
Jeanne Graff was born in Vevey (Switzerland) ; she lives in New York.
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The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation
Created in 2002, The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation will be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2017. has assigned itself the task of promoting dialogue between the bank and its surrounding environment, on issues that are as much cultural, as they are social and environmental..
Historically, The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation has been particularly committed to participate in restoration programmes of major works by Max Ernst, Auguste Rodin, Bram van Velde and Paul Véronèse, belonging to permanent collections of museums such as the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva or the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. The Foundation has also supported several programmes of cultural mediation promoting access to works and to the various trades of restoration to the general public. Today, an important part of the Foundation’s activities is the support, encouragement and appreciation of young artists and emerging talents, as for example though its commitment alongside HEAD-Genève to the New Heads – BNP Paribas Foundation Art Awards.
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HEAD – Genève
HEAD – Genève, Haute école d’art et de design, which celebrates its 10th anniversary, has become one of the most important art schools in Europe. Its five departments provide Bachelor and Master degree programmes of high quality in Visual Arts, Visual Communication, Interior Design, Film and Fashion as well as an Art and Design PhD programme in partnership with the EPFL in Lausanne.
Its teachers and speakers, well-known Swiss or international figures, are the pride of the school which, thanks to them, can provide innovative and diversified educational curriculum focused on the students’ work.
A programme of conferences (the Talking Heads), exhibitions (LiveInYourHead), a Summer Academy at the Swiss Institute in Rome, a residence for artists in Marfa (Texas) and many partnerships with national, international, Swiss-French cultural institutions, serve as an opportunity to introduce the school in a large network of artistic partnerships.
The famous alumnis from HEAD – Genève include Jimmie Durham, John M Armleder, Silvia Bächli, Christian Marclay, Francis Baudevin, Emmanuelle Antille, Shahryar Nashat, Pauline Boudry, Emilie Ding, Sonia Kacem, Marta Riniker-Radich, Anne le Troter, Ramaya Tegegne, Pierre Vadi…
