TESLA Award winners are BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica & Marco Barotti!
TESLA Award 2018 jury, Martin Bricelj Baraga (MoTA, Ljubljana), Simon Jacquemin (Bellastock, Paris), Olga Veselova (Artbat Festival, Almaty) and Olof van Winden (TodaysArt, Hague), has chosen the projects of Slovenian collective BridA and Italian artist Marco Barotti.
TESLA Award (Transdisciplinary Experimental Slovenian Art Award) is a competition focusing on new and progressive art forms in the field of transdisciplinary or intermedia art. Its mission is to provide optimal conditions for selected artists to research, produce and present an entirely new artwork under the mentorship of MoTA – Museum of Transitory Art and each year’s partners. The aim of the award is to improve the conditions of artistic production in the field of transdisciplinary / intermedia art, in response to the growing interest in research-based practices in Slovenia and broader Eastern European region.
This year, TESLA Award published an open call for artworks on the theme of Water Stream, searching for installations and other public space artworks, which use water as a structural element or reflect on the importance of water in cities. This year’s award is organised in partnership with Bellastock and Artbat Fest in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Artbat is the only contemporary art festival in Almaty, which organizes public space installations of artworks. This year’s festival will take place between 24 August 2018 and end of September, and is curated by Martin Bricelj Baraga (MoTA) and Simon Jacquemin (Bellastock). The curators have chosen Water Stream as the 2018 festival theme, and have selected 10 artworks – 4 from Central Asia and 6 from Europe.
Winning projects
BridA: VODOSKOP
The Vodoskop installation consists of two floating modules, equipped with a wireless transmitter. The modules collect data on the speed of water and the water flow, and send it to the computer, installed on the nearby bridge. Passers-by can interact with the water flow visualisation: while on the bridge, they can watch the visualisation on the floor, and interact with it by stepping in the virtual river. Vodoskop mirrors the nature and creates a multilayered image in the interspace of our perception. The AV interaction on the bridge offers a unique experience by intertwining real and virtual space. Visitors become active parts of an art project which allows them to enter multidimensionality, and offers them a new viewing angle of an ordinary natural activity. Its specific location and artistic approach reflect on the social impact of rivers and its role in our collective consciousness. Vodoskop problematises our relationship with water in natural and urban environments.
Marco Barotti: SWANS
The Swans installation consists of 8 satellite dishes, typical residues of our time that represent mass media. The swans, brought to life by sound, wind and water, peacefully float in the water, and merge with the surrounding nature. A speaker is installed on each upcycled satellite dish. Two layers of sound, a bass frequency and the sound of human breath moving through various brass instruments, animate the swans. Eight-channel sound thus moves through the swans. The installation provokes the feeling of revulsion, and that of intimate familiarity in the nature at the same time, and challenges the audience to reflect on tech waste and its impact on the environment.
TESLA Award is supported by ARTECITYA network, co-financed by Creative Europe.
