DENES

YOUNG VISUAL ARTIST ANNUAL AWARD

                The Contemporary Art Center – Skopje, in collaboration with the Civil Society Foundation in New York, is establishing an annual award for best young artist in the Republic of Macedonia under 35.
                The model of the award is alike already existing Jindrich Chalupecky Award in Czech Republic and Oskar Čepan Award in Slovakia, both awards that gained significant recognition in respective countries.
                The Contemporary Art Center is responsible for the preparation and organization of all domestic activities, whereas the Foundation for Civil Society is responsible for the residency in the USA.
                This project is based on lack of such opportunities for artists in Macedonia, the non-existence of such kind of awards, the professional interest by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Faculty for Fine Arts in Skopje, as well as the need to expose contemporary Macedonian art to a wider audience in Macedonia and abroad. We believe that the initiating of this award will create a competitive structure around the award and strengthen discussions among institutions and young artists. We wish to emphasize that the award will achieve its purpose by exposing young creativity to a widened circle of public, the offering of new opportunities to participating artists; and by including a number of various fine art institutions and professionals in an annual and impartial process of reflection and decision making. The award should result in introduction of new models of operation in cultural and institutional life.
The award is to be annual. The process of awarding it consists of several phases:
-          Selection of awarded artists
-          Group exhibition of the 4 artists in Skopje
-          Residency in USA for the First awarded
-          Exhibition of the winner after the arrival from the residency in the USA.
The method of the selection was divided in two phases:
-          Nominations of artists, by renown art critics in Macedonia
-          Final Selection of the awarded, after the reviewing of the nominations by the Board for the award.
                The winner of the first prize receives a residency covering the travel and stay expenses to the International House, associated with the University of Columbia in New York.
The project is financially assisted by the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia, and the Foundation for Civil Society in New York.

Exhibition in 2004 was held in June in the Kurshumli An

Nominated Artists:

Oliver Musovik, Ljubomir Miloseski and Hristina Ivanoska and Yane Calovski and winner was Saso Talevski from Art group HA