Winners of the Antarctic Biennale Open Call for Artists Under 35 Announced During Art Basel Miami Beach

MIAMI, December 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

On December 1st, the results of the Antarctic Biennale Open Call for artists under 35 were announced during Art Basel Miami Beach. The first prize was an invitation to join a group of distinguished artists, researchers and visionaries of all ages on an expedition Antarctica in March 2017, to realize a proposed artwork. The winners are Sho Hasegawa (Japan) and Gustav Dusing (Germany). The decision to award the first prize to two artists, on the part of the international jury, was a surprise.

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The event was held with the support of the Antarctic Biennale Open Call partner BMW Group. Thomas Girst, Head of BMW Cultural Engagement and honored guest of the ceremony introduced the Antarctic Biennale project and its founder and commissioner artist Alexander Ponomarev to the international press pool. According to Mr.Girst international projects like that are important for understanding the role of art in the nearest future.

The Open Call results were announced by Alexander Ponomarev. The live streamed event on the project's Facebook page gathered numerous viewers from all over the world.

First announced in August 2016, the Open Call received over 500 applications from 59 countries. The most active applicant countries were the USA (72 applications), UK (45 applications) and Russia (38 applications). The top 10 active participating countries also included France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Turkey and Mexico. The winner and finalists were selected by an international jury comprising the Commissioner of the Antarctic Biennale, Alexander Ponomarev, and members of the Artistic Advisory Board: president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sheikha Hoor al-Qasimi; art critic, curator, author Hans-Ulrich Obrist; architect and artist Hani Rashid; and Antarctic Biennale Organizing Committee Member and independent curator, Nadim Samman.

The winning project by Sho Hasegawa "The Winter Landscape" is an open-ended project, incorporating research from his previous expeditions and an experiment that combines drawing, ice skating and electricity. Gustav Dusing proposed 'Shelter', a temporary architectural structure made of thin ice. According to the author's description, his project builds upon research by the Swiss engineer Heinz Isler, who pioneered modern experiments with ice-building.