Pax Art Awards 2019
Les Pax Art Awards sont décernés pour la deuxième fois en juin 2019. À travers ces prix innovants récompensant l’art numérique, Art Foundation Pax honore et promeut, en collaboration avec la HEK (Maison des Arts Électroniques), les œuvres spécifiquement liées aux médias d’artistes suisses qui s’appuient sur les technologies des médias ou mettent en évidence leurs répercussions. Cette année, le jury a primé le binôme knowbotiq ainsi que les artistes Alan Bogana et Félicien Goguey.
Art Foundation Pax est une fondation indépendante destinée à promouvoir l’art numérique et médiatique suisse et qui bénéficie du soutien financier de Pax. L’une des activités de la fondation consiste à décerner les prix artistiques Pax Art Awards à la HEK.
Le jury, composé de Mónica Bello (directrice d’Arts at CERN, Genève), Davide Fornari (directeur R&D à l’ECAL, Lausanne), Sabine Himmelsbach (directrice de la HEK) et Carmen Weisskopf (membre du duo d’artistes !Mediengruppe Bitnik et lauréate des Pax Art Awards 2018), a récompensé en 2019 le binôme d’artistes knowbotiq (Yvonne Wilhelm et Christian Hübler) pour ses travaux modernes et au long cours dans les domaines de l’art médiatique, avec un prix d’un montant de 30 000 CHF. La somme se répartit en 15 000 CHF versés aux artistes pour soutenir la production de nouveaux travaux et 15 000 CHF supplémentaires consacrés à l’acquisition d’une œuvre pour la collection d’Art Foundation Pax. Deux autres prix sont attribués à de jeunes créatrices et créateurs émergent·e·s dans le domaine de l’art médiatique: Alan Bogana, artiste tessinois, et Félicien Goguey, artiste installé à Genève, reçoivent chacun 15 000 CHF, prime et acquisition comprises.
Les membres du conseil de fondation d’Art Foundation Pax siègent également parmi le jury et disposent d’un droit de vote:
Nicolas C. Bopp, président du conseil de fondation Art Foundation Pax, Bâle
Fausto De Lorenzo, De Lorenzo Art and Museum Management & Consulting GmbH, Bâle
knowbotiq
Through their long-standing practice as artists, knowbotiq – formerly active as knowbotic research together with Alexander Tuchacek – has significantly shaped the media art scene in Switzerland. The artist group is among the first voices within the field and has created an impressive body of work spanning nearly 30 years of experimentation at the intersection of art, knowledge, information and technology. From the beginning, the artists have been dedicated to developing research-based works, around networked agency, immersive realities, epistemic disobedience and medialities of knowledge. Their work explores many areas from the poetic to the conceptual, revisiting for example the history of camouflage and cybernetics.
The jury particularly appreciates the conceptual profundity of the work by knowbotiq, praising the philosophical aspects of their artistic investigations, the variety of topics approached, as well as the formal care in the presentation of their complex installations and performances.
Alan Bogana
Bogana’s singular artistic practice focuses on the exploration of light, material processes and interactions within a vast array of natural phenomena, particularly related to minerals, fluids and crystals. These interests are deeper explored by applying different media and amplifying their range through series of mesmerising installations and devices that allows the viewer to enter the hidden realms of their natural world.
The combination of various forms and mediums, from sculpture, computer graphics and electronics to 3D printing technics, offer a great variety of languages and a solid and diverse application of multiple tools. Bogana’s artworks confront the viewer with the challenges of a common digital life and inspire to think about how modern technologies contribute to other ways of seeing and mimicking nature.
Félicien Goguey
With a background in communication networks, visual studies and digital media design, Goguey’s practice revolves around the imperceptibility of the Internet and its invisible mechanisms, as well as its political and social consequences. By exploring the creative potential of programming languages and new open source technologies, he creates interactive installations, live performances, applications and connected objects. The core of his research focuses on mass surveillance conducted within communication networks by governmental entities and the relations between monitored spaces and their users.
The jury of the Pax Art Awards 2019 is impressed by the quality of Goguey’s work and its reference to current topics influencing our everyday lives. They appreciate the singular way in which the artist approaches not only the topic of the Internet as such but also its infrastructures, while praising the elegance and the originality of the artist’s works.