Kamya Ramachandran (IN)
Ramachandran Kamya is a trained architect, researcher and design educator with career experience spanning multiple geographies from the UK, USA, India and most recently Singapore. She has helmed Bangalore’s premier Art organization Jaaga, with a focus on its tech art and public arts & design programs since 2014. This led to her current position as the Founder-Director of BeFantastic as well as Festival Director & CoCurator of Bangalore’s TechArt Festival series, the latest of which is FutureFantastic.in. Kamya is passionate about convening and engaging diverse collaborative communities for a better world. With a keen eye for conceptualizing and manifesting programs with socio-environmental themes at its core, Kamya is adept at engaging a variety of stakeholders ranging from government and academia, non-profits and corporates, to artists and audiences alike.
Oyindamola (Fakeye) Faithful (UK)
Oyindamola (Fakeye) Faithful is the current Executive & Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos) through which she facilitates the Àsìkò Art School, a roving Pan-African, place-based residency program delivered to African artists and curators. Oyindamola serves as the Board Chair for Res Artis, the worldwide professional body for artists’ residencies and is also a part of the leadership team for the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, a virtual training program for art and healthcare practitioners. She has worked on various exhibitions and projects, including “Identity: An Imagined State” (2009) the first video art exhibition in Nigeria. Co-curated the Lagos Biennial II (2019), titled “How to Build a Lagoon With Just a Bottle of Wine,” and co-founded the Video Art Network Lagos (2009). Oyindamola’s practice often centers collaboration, access, inclusion, embodied experiences and new media technology.
Marita Muukkonen (FI) and Ivor Stodolsky (DE/FI)
Marita Muukkonen and Ivor Stodolsky (in alternating order) founded and direct Perpetuum Mobilε (PM) which runs Ecologists at Risk (ER) and Artists at Risk (AR). Curatorial projects include: Alliances for Art at Risk (ZKM), Risk and Rebellion, AR Pavilion (4 iterations incl. biennials), Pluriversity, School of the Displaced (Kyiv Biennial), Re-Aligned (10), Perpetual Romani Pavilion (Venice, Berlin, Moderna Museet), Arts Assembly (Manifesta, CAFA, Beaux Arts, +5); Raw, Cooked, Packaged (Kiasma).
Simon Mraz (AT)
Simon Mraz is an exhibition maker and art historian. From 2009 to 2020 he served as director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow. Simon Mraz´s working focus is an artistic exploration of diverse cultural layers of Russia and the interaction with independent Russian creatives. He has initiated, organized and curated a series of art projects involving Russian and international artists in locations across Russia that over years were counted among the internationally most successful contemporary art projects created in Russia. 2021 Simon Mraz was hired by the Austrian Foreign Ministry with the task to develop and implement innovative formats for an international Austrian cultural policy at the Austrian foreign ministry in the field of contemporary art. In March 2022 he co-founded the leading Austrian program supporting Ukrainian artists in Austria – “Office Ukraine – Shelter for Ukrainian Artists” and together with Ars Electronica the international program “State of the Art(ist)” dedicated to artists at risk from around the world.
Christl Baur (DE)
Christl Baur is the director of the Ars Electronica Festival, where she leads as an interdisciplinary researcher specializing in the convergence of art and science. With a diverse academic background encompassing art history, cultural management, and natural sciences, her work revolves around the fusion of aesthetic and social practices that challenge established norms. She has curated and co-produced a wide range of exhibitions and performances, notably including the exhibition “40 Years of Humanizing Technology – Art, Technology, and Society” in collaboration with CAFA and the Design Society in Shenzhen, China. Baur’s expertise extends to various fields, including video art, new media technologies, computer art, biotechnology, and interactive art. Her research endeavors explore the interplay between art and science, constantly pushing the boundaries of social, political, and economic protocols.
Jury Statement 2024
Autocratic leaders are increasingly gaining power – and weakening human rights – around the globe. Humanity is losing its way. Conflicts are raging, civic space is shrinking, and the media is under attack from all sides. The climate crisis is a human rights crisis that is hitting the most vulnerable and frontline ecological defenders the hardest.
While authoritarian governments and many world leaders are backtracking on human rights obligations, we feel art, its actors and its institutions can actively engage in countering inegalitarian, anti-democratic, and eco-destructive forces. Art can stand for resistance and change.
The State of the ART(ist) initiative promotes and highlights this artistic agency. This year, it garnered a remarkable number of 311 submissions across 46 countries. The candidates are both diverse artistically and thematically: from collective action software applications, through grassroots movements, to more traditional visual arts and contemporary dance. They carry messages addressing topics ranging from the violence of terrorism and war to structural violence in domestic and everyday practices of alternatives.
The jury conducted a rigorous evaluation process, in which the question of risk constituted a fundamental aspect of reflections on each submission. Political and social contexts provided a critical backdrop to the work. Nevertheless, while addressing this question was a prerequisite for valid submissions, the jury’s selection criteria were based on artistic quality.
We should emphasize that in its work, the prize adheres to international human rights conventions, affirming that discrimination on grounds of origin, ethnicity, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other identity category is unacceptable. Regardless of any government or leadership’s violations of basic freedoms and human rights, collective discrimination against individuals based on the actions of their country or its leaders is not legitimate. Individuals stand for their own thoughts and actions.
We extend our sincere appreciation to all participating artists for their courage and creativity in sharing their vision, stories and perspectives. While provoking meaningful discourse on human rights, societal challenges, and the enduring power of artistic expression, we wish to emphasize that we evaluate artists for their art, and the selected works are examples of this combination of engaged artistic excellence.
Kamya Ramachandran, Oyindamola (Fakeye) Faithful , Marita Muukkonen, Ivor Stodolsky, Simon Mraz, Christl Baur
Advisors
- Margarethe Makovec (AT)
- Farah Salka (LB)
- Eduardo Cachucho (ZA)
- Ruthia Jenrbekova (KZ)
- Katalin Krasznahorkai (DE)
- Matthew Blaise (NG)
- Ümit Güç (TR)
- Kira Xonorika (PY)
- Kholod Hawash (IQ)