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Competition: Urban Impact will impact all residents of Košice
To what extent can modern painting or architecture impact lives, or city stereotypes? How can tediousness of city reality be thwarted? Such were the issues the contestants in Urban Impact, a public fine art project, were faced with. The contest aimed at working out a specific project integrating visual art into city organism, into its public space, and point out the long-needed presence of visual art in the city. The contests could draw inspiration from manifold means of expression balancing between an object, site-specific art, and urban art. Project should cover strategic city public spaces – select location, mutual relationship and significance. And we know the winner.
Out of 15 competing projects, the proposal coming from a young painter Radovan Čerevka resonated with the jury most. As the proposal entails a strategy of secret and surprise, the office of ECC Košice 2013 decided to keep the name and location hidden for now. For now, we can say the assessment report read that the proposal was perceived positively for its ignitingly provocative and ironic concept.
“Its placement in the key pastime zone creates a space for social discourse and public activation. The proposal has a potent media potential, it nags the public and stimulates to declarations of various (even negative) social attitudes and protest activity, and at the same time, affects the public in its environmental and ecological stances. In the sphere of public space (even in conditions of public tenders), it introduces a less frequented means of provocative pouncing at one of the most burning current issues, such as interconnection of big corporate interests endangering ecological stability of the environment with public politics, or the indifference to public affairs, which leads to irreversible negative consequences,” stated the verdict of the jury on its selection.
Radovan Čerevka (1980) has lived in Košice all his life. He attended prof. Bartuszs’s sculpting atelier at the Department of Fine Arts and Intermedia at the Technical University in Košice. Currently, he is student of master studies at Vysoká škola výtvarných umení in Bratislava. He is a member of the Kassa Boys art group. He stages his work at exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad on a regular basis. In 2005, he was a finalist in a prestigious Slovak prize awarding young painters – The Oskár Čepan Prize. In the Czech Republic, he stirred public attention by the manipulated portrait of Petra Buzková with a black eye, which he created in 2006 for an Amnesty International exhibition dedicated to violence against women. You can see R.Čerevka’s work at an exhibition titled Iranian Komplex, which is on display in the National Theater Gallery in Praha until January 11, 2009.
Interview
Peter Beňo: What decided was the provocative and ironizing nature of the project
Painter Peter Beňo, who was on the jury of Urban Impact, thinks its main theme was to highlight a city public place in an innovative artistic manner and to bring the undergoing cultural transformation of the city into the forefront.
How did the original idea behind the competition develop?
It was Michal Hladký, the author of Interface project, who initiated it. He addressed me to consider the collaboration on the project. In the end, we put the idea together and concept behind the project as well. We have also completed the concept of next year’s competition, when we would like to see more project proposals, maybe from foreign painters as well.
I hope we will succeed in establishing an event with an international participation on a cyclical basis that would be part of a project within the ECC 2013 and would promote new visual culture in a public city space.
Have you managed to meet the expectations, which you had when you initiated the competition?
We wanted to keep the competition rather non-formal. In the end, we had to observe certain standard administrative conditions. The jury was assessing anonymous proposals – by score evaluation in the first round, and joint discussion and consensus in the second round.
I however think the event’s primary contribution lay in stirring up a debate on a city public space, on certain locations and their potential, which, to some extent, initiated a discourse of significance. Meeting experts who make up the jury mostly spurs valuable impulses, which are worth noting. In this case we have somewhat succeeded in defining the position the virtual art finds itself in a public space – not just in terms of elements shaping it, but in terms of a significant social phenomenon as well.
How would you assess the quality standard and the amount of submitted proposals retrospectively?
I have to admit that we had expected more proposals from established painters or architects. Due to the low number of proposals, we moved the competition a month ahead. Eventually, we received 15 proposals to consider. Most of them were of very average quality, be it in terms of conceptual or visual rendition. Many proposals had some potential, but they had not been complete enough – they rather served as means to open up a discussion on how they could be concluded or integrated into the visual or social framework of the city. Some noteworthy proposals sprang up in the second round, but mostly during discussion sessions.
Why did you decide to award Radovan Čerevka’s proposal the winning title?
The winning proposal, which had scored the highest amount of points in the first round, passed into the second one with a very high ranking. The projects that came first and second had risen above the others from the start. I believe the urge to confront our environmental, political or social stance with a rather controversial gesture in the midst of a society drowsing in lethargy, was present in every juror. That was the decisive factor.
It is rather paradoxical to know the winner, but keep his proposal a top secret until it is publicly disclosed. Why?
Since the project has a potential to reach wider societal, social and media circles, we decided not to disclose it just yet. We would not want to take the moment of surprise away from our fellow citizens.
Where and when will the project be disclosed?
Disclosure will come in due time. It depends foremost on the author. Then, we hope, this project will affect the cultural and artistic arenas. It can thus bring the public discourse into re-evaluating the task and the influence of visual art on our society.