The ninth exhibition “JCDecaux prize” is looking for new names and is moving to a historical building – MadeinVilnius.lt

Eagerly awaited by artists, the annual competition project “JCDecaux Prize” returns for the ninth time and continues the search for new creators of contemporary art. The initiators of the project – Contemporary Art Center (ŠMC) and outdoor advertising company “JCDecaux Lietuva” – invite artists until May 19. midnight to submit works proposals for the exhibition, which will be held for the first time in the spaces of a historical building – in the Sapiegi Palace, which opened its doors newly this spring.

The curators of the exhibition – Kotryna Markevičiūtė and Ona Juciūtė – are happy to be at the helm of the “JCDecaux Prize” project for the second time. “We are glad that the exhibition is once again an opportunity to discover and present a group of today’s creators who are taking the first professional steps in their work. This time, we can’t wait to place it in the newly opened Sapiegi Palace – a new and, at the same time, very old city public space, where the city’s memory, heritage and contemporary art intertwine,” the curators say.

The exhibition “JCDecaux Prize 2024” will be presented in the Northern Gallery on the first floor of the Sapiegi Palace. This and other open first-floor galleries were built in the 17th century. designed by Italian architect Giovanni Battista Frediani. The northern gallery is an arched gallery with a vaulted ceiling typical of Italian architecture in a baroque atmosphere, where residents and guests of the building could hide from the heat of the sun. 19th century these open spaces were walled off and turned into indoor spaces. During the recently completed reconstruction of the building, the architecture of the gallery was restored by glazing the arches with showcase windows that connect the indoor and outdoor spaces.

The curators suggest to the aspiring artists to take into account the historical context of the exhibition space and the use of the spaces today. “Such an intermediate, fluid, transitory, changing destination, interspersed between inside and outside, naturally invites us to think about the states of functionality, temporality, opening and restriction, about new layers of meanings and experiences overlaying the past.” As the exhibition space maintains a direct connection with the outdoor area surrounding the palace, we would like to invite artists to consider the genre of public art as well. Of course, it is important to take into account the fact that the exhibition will take place in the dark and cool season”, the curators point out.

The organizers also recommend taking into account the fact that there is no possibility to mount the works on the walls, fix them to the floor or ceiling in the space intended for the exhibition, so the peculiarities of displaying the works should be evaluated. The artists selected for the exhibition will be consulted by the exhibition architect.

As every year, after the application deadline, the curators will select the most compatible and thematically compatible projects, from which a conceptual group exhibition will be formed. A production budget of EUR 1,500 and curatorial support is allocated to the work of each participant or group. At the end of the exhibition, according to the decision of the international commission, a monetary bonus of 4000 EUR will be awarded to one artist or group participating in the exhibition for the originality and relevance of the artistic expression of the presented work, and the visitors of the exhibition will be able to choose the winner of the audience prize, who will have the opportunity to present their project in the “JCDecaux Lietuva” outdoor advertising network.

Open call and its conditions

Exhibitors of the “JCDecaux Prize” project are selected through an open call. Lithuanian citizens (including those living abroad) or foreign artists permanently working and living in Lithuania, over 18 years of age, but just starting their artistic career (who have not had solo exhibitions in important Lithuanian or foreign art institutions) can participate in the competition.

The participant’s application consists of: a description of the project (no longer than one sheet of A4 format), visual material of the project (preliminary visualizations, sketches, frames), a preliminary estimate of the implementation of the idea, a free-form CV and a work portfolio (“portfolio”). All materials must be placed in a single PDF file of no more than 5 MB in size.

Applications until May 19. midnight, we invite you to submit on the website jcdecauxpremija.lt Exhibitors will be announced by the beginning of July. It is planned that the exhibition in the Sapiegi Palace will open its doors to visitors at the end of October this year.

Winners and curators of the previous exhibition

Last year, the exhibition “JCDecaux Prize 2023: Exchange for the Ages” held at the National Art Gallery presented the works of six budding artists – Joel Ashkinis, Tata Frenkel, Sandra Golubjevaitė, Urtė Janus, Mykolas Valantin and Miglė Vyčinaitė. The main prize of the JCDecaux Prize 2023 went to the artist Tata Frenkel for the work “How to become an antenna”. The public sympathy prize was awarded to the artist Mykolas Valantinas for the work “Mouth to Mouth”, which integrated the walking sticks of Mečislovas Ežerskis. It was to him – Mečislov Ežerski – that the international commission awarded a special mention for his lifelong work and dedication to his practice.

The team of curators of the JCDecaux Prize traditionally changes every two years. In this way, the aim is to maintain the originality of the exposition, to ensure new and dynamic project solutions and processes every time. The exhibition will be curated by Kotryna Markevičiūtė and Ona Juciūtė for the second year.

Kotryna Markevičiūtė is a curator of contemporary art and education. Currently, Markevičiūtė works at the National Art Gallery, and in 2023 Together with Ona Juciūte, he curated the “JCDecaux Prize” exhibition “Mainais į Amžius” (ŠMC, National Art Gallery). in 2022 she interned at the Joint Research Center (JRC), where she researched the practices of artists living in the Arctic in the context of climate change, 2018-2020. was curator of Rupert’s residencies and exhibitions, co-curator of the exhibitions “Jonas Mek: Let me dream of utopias” (2019, Rupert) and “Other Rooms” (2020, Rupert, LDS Gallery).

Ona Juciūtė is an artist who lives and works in Vilnius. Her works have been presented at the Contemporary Art Center, the National Art Gallery, Rupert, Editorial and other contemporary art spaces in Vilnius, as well as CCA Derry~Londonderry in the United Kingdom, MOCAK Museum in Krakow, the parallel program of the 17th Istanbul Biennale and elsewhere. Juciūtė is awarded the first “JCDecaux prize” and the prize established by Aleksandra Kašuba. From 2021 her sculptures became part of the permanent collection of the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki. From 2022 teaches sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.