Our festival has a number of goals and one of the most fundamental is the support of the youngest generation of Czech visual artists and author groups. During our existence, we have helped to create more than 80 installations and we continue. This year, for the first time, in cooperation with Pražská plynárenská, we announced the Neon Award for students of art colleges, the aim of which is to support innovative art projects focused on contemporary digital technologies, animation, motion design or 3D animation.
The winner was chosen at the beginning of September by a jury composed of David Kořínek (head of the Center for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU), Richard Loskot (visual artist), Barbora Půlpánová (member of the board of the Smečky Gallery Endowment Fund run by Pražská plynárenská), Ondřej Horák (artist and author of exhibition projects), Jakub Pešek (light designer, visual artist, set designer and founder of the Lunchmeat Festival) and Mario Kunovský (program coordinator of the Signal Festival). Students from 6 Czech universities in total have applied, specifically from AVU, FUD UJEP, FAMU, DAMU, Technical University of Liberec and VŠUP. Art in public space, applied advertising photography, industrial design, painting, time-based media, interactive media, but also painting or directing and alternative and puppet dramaturgy theater – these are all the fields of art represented among the submissions.
The winning project was Simulacra by the author duo Vítězslav Plavec and Filip Zeman from the Faculty of Architecture and Art of the Technical University in Liberec. The installation, representing the confusion of an individual in today’s society full of intense and accelerated sensory perceptions, plays with the optical illusion and distortion of the image. It uses technologies known, for example, from the production of 3D posters. The work consists of square formats of lenticular lenses, which are housed in a rectangular assembly of metal frames. It is the lens that creates the distortion of images, and thanks to the refraction of light, the visitor sees only a certain part of them from every angle.
What attracted the jury? The jurors especially appreciated the complexity of the project, its technical demands and interactivity. Depending on the changing environment, it creates different situations and can be easily exhibited in different spaces, under different conditions.
This comprehensive work, which will become part of the Pražská plynárenská art collection, will be on display in the streets of Prague at the ninth year of our festival from October 14 to October 17.