The award “Most Successful Artist and Work” at the 14th International Biennale of Young Artists thematically titled “Awakening” was equally awarded to Serhat Emrulai (North Macedonia), for his installation entitled “Between” from 2022 and to Nadja Kračunović (Serbia), for her video performance “Hydra” from 2023. The prize consists of solo exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje, which will take place in 2024.
The jury consisting of cultural theorist Slavcho Dimitrov, and curators Bojana Janeva and Vladimir Janchevski, explained its unanimous decision saying: “When making the decision for this year’s winner of the award for the most successful artist and his/her work, the consideration was additionally influenced by the overall practice of the artists represented at this Biennale and their potential for the realization of a more significant step through an independent presentation at MSU Skopje. Hence, in the works of two award-winning artists, Serhat Emrulai and Nadja Kračunović, and their use of various media and well-developed conceptual postulates, the jury saw deep sensitivity and subtlety in addressing, analyzing and presenting various social, political and cultural issues relevant to the present.”
Nadja Kračunović, Hydra, 2023, video performance, 17:08
“Hydra” by Nadja Kračunović is a performative video displaying several months of investigation in the field of the personal, authentic, intimate female voice as a resistance to the patriarchal landscape. The highly developed conceptual arrangement through the supporting role of sound, the voice in the form of a scream, whisper, or silence, the multifaceted visual meanings, the collective work with other artists, as well as the simultaneous clear and strong message to the viewer make this work an overall biennial achievement.
Serhat Emrulai, In-Between, 2022, installation, 140x100x200 cm
Serhat Emrulai’s installation “Between” addresses the question of time through the continuous cacophonous sound of the spinning of teaspoons, where past and present are marked by continuous anticipation. Sharing a personal impression, a childhood memory of an ordinary daily life routine, the author signifies the collective human need for connection, a significant change always expected from the future, concentrated in the moment/s of waiting. Also, this work answered the question posed by this year’s biennial theme, how artists experienced the pandemic restrictive period when the whole world was hostage to a time filled with waiting for the moment when things would change.
This year’s 14th Biennale of Young Artists was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in the period from April 6 to May 26, 2023
