The Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Center presents the Annual Contemporary Art Awards in association withthe Sergey Kuryokhin Charity Fund.
Through their work awardees include painters, supervisors,and musicians developing revolutionary ideasstated by Sergey Kuryokhin in as early as 1990s. Theseare such POP-MECHANICA principles as a search fornew forms of interplay of arts, provocation, and commitmentto performance, improvisation and unpredictableresults of artistic work that the Sergey Kuryokhin Awardis based on.The unique nature of the Award lies in developmentof the synthesis of arts materialized in works of SergeyKuryokhin, which consists in introduction of nominationssuch as POP-MECHANICA GRAND-PRIX, POETIC PERFORMANCE,and PUBLIC ART. While supporting musicians,artists, ands supervisors, the Sergey KuryokhinAward is also dedicated to its educational mission —introduction of the best art projects that are often overlookedby traditional cultural establishments.The first 2009 project awards ceremony was heldin 2010, which became a dramatic event in the world ofcontemporary art at once. Nominees’ multimedia performancesand installations turned the awards ceremonyinto a festival that was much noticed by the public andmass media.
The 2009 Sergey Kuryokhin Award winners were:
the DakhaBrakha multimedia project, supervisors AgathaJordan and Elena Oleynikova (B.U. Kashkin Fest project),Petr Beliy (the SILENCE installation), Andrey Bartenevwith his performance based on the poem MOYDODYRby K. Chukovskiy, UNIQUETUNES music project, singerSainkho Namchylak, and Boris Rayskiy. The legendarycomposer from St. Petersburg — Oleg Karavaychuk receiveda special award “For Merits in Development of theContemporary Art”.
The 2010 winners were:
Pop-Mechanica Grand-Prix• Provmyza. Three String Quartets For One Video. NizhniyNovgorod, 2009-2010• Teatro di Capua. Medea. Pieces. St. Petersburg,2010
Best Curator Project
• Katya Bochavar. Gogol Fest. VAP (visual art program).Moscow, 2010
Best Visual Art Project
• Maskim Svishchev. The Waiting Room. St. Petersburg,2010
Public Art
• Marina Alekseeva, Boris Kazakov. The Minibus. St.Petersburg, 2010
Judges’ Special Award
• Igor Chirkin, Aleksey Podkidyshev. The Life of Insects.Moscow, 2009Best Poeti c Performance
• Natalya Pershina-Yakimanskaya (Gluklya). The LastStand. St. Petersburg, 2010
Ethno-Mechanica
• Gurzuf
Electro-Mechanica
• Elochnye Igrushki
The 2011 awards ceremony nominations will include:
• The Pop-Mechanica Grand-Prix (synthetic project,potentially with a live music component, radicalfashion performance, and poetic performance)
• Best Curator Project
• Best visual art project (installation, object, painting,sculpture)
• Best Media Project (video art, film, animation)
• Public Art (public art, land art, graffiti projects)
• Best Contemporary Art Text (journalist/critic/art expertawards)
Apart fromthese nominations,the following awards of honor will be presented:
• Ethno-Mechanica (best world music project)
• Electro-Mechanica (best electronic music project)
The project is supported by the St. Petersburg Committeeon Culture.Sergey Kuryokhin Award prizes are designed by wellknownRussian artists. In 2009 it was created by SergeyAfrica-Bugaev, then such tradition appeared that prizesare made by the winners of the previous years. In 2010the authorship belonged to the “The best visual object“ nomination winner Petr Beliy. This year the prize willbe made by artists Marina Alexeeva and Boris Kazakov.
