3rd TARGETTI LIGHT ART AWARD: AND THE WINNER IS...
A Dane and an Israeli are this year’s winners of the international competition for young artists promoted by Targetti in co-operation with ArteFiera.
Is it possible for LEDs, fibre optics, electro-luminescent fibres, dichroic and fluorescent lamps to be media of expression through which new and enchanting works of art take shape? Once again after six years, more than 700 young artists coming from all over the world have challenged one another taking part in the Targetti Light Art International Award. The company, which produces lighting equipment, has promoted this competition within an investigation into the emotional power of artificial light.
This year Brian Rasmussen from Denmark (30 years old), and Ely Rozenberg from Israel (34 years old), have been elected as the winners of the two categories provided for in the notice of the competition. Within the category “light works” (luminous installations on a 120 x 120 cm vertical support) Rasmussen created “Un varco nel buio”, a suggestive reproduction of two beats of a Bach’s fugue by means of light and shade alternation. Rozenberg came first in the second category “light sculptures” (three-dimensional works where the use of white light is required) with “Buckminster”, a low-voltage light structure.
The second place of the two categories was won by the Canadian, native of Taiwan, Kwok Wai Lau, and the couple formed by the Italian Salvo Bonura and Simon Crilley of New Zealand (both being 28 years old) respectively. The former is the creator of the piece “Life is... fragile, handle with care”, dedicated to the Sars tragedy, while the latter presented the light sculpture “Inside/Out”.
The winners have been appointed (the reward amounting to 20.000 Euro) after a scrupulous selection among over 700 projects, made by a jury consisting of directors of prestigious museums such as Steven D. Lavine (president of the California Institute of the Arts), influential names from the cultural press such as Alessandra Mammì (“L’Espresso” magazine) and Nigel Coates (headmaster of the department of architecture at the Royal College of Arts in London), collectors Marino and Paola Golinelli, as well as Amnon Barzel (art director of the Targetti Art Light Collection)
Besides an official jury, also a “popular” jury was present awarding two special prizes: scholarships enabling the artists to attend a training course at the La Sfacciata Foundation – Lighting Academy, in order to enrich their knowledge of artificial light so as to utilise it more and more consciously in favour of their creativity.
This year this special jury was made up of architects, designers and journalists who took part in the performance exhibition held at the beginning of December at the Zanotta Shop in Milan, during which a preview show of the projects having reached the finals of the “light sculptures” section took place. They finally voted for the work of art by Salvo Bonura and Simon Crilley. As regards the choice made by the network entering the website www.lightingacademy.org (the vertical portal supported by Targetti whose aim is to spread the light culture through the web), Elisa Sonato with the work “Lunatica” received the other scholarship.
Real charming mixtures of light and colour: the works awarded arose from an involved experimentation on possible synergies between the enterprising and the artistic worlds. The artists were given the opportunity to carry out exhaustive research on the relationship existing among light, matter, colour and shape in co-operation with Targetti’s skilled techinicians, in order to give birth to small luminous magic creations capable of proving the emotional and communicative power of artificial light.
These works of art belong now to the Targetti Light Art Collection, the only one in Italy being dedicated to the Light Art, and permanently shown at Villa La Sfacciata. This magnificent Renaissance construction in the hills of Florence is the ideal setting for the “light works” made by some of the most renowned artists (among them: Gilberto Zorio, Anne et Patrick Poirier, Olafur Eliasson and Hidetoshi Nagasawa).
The works awarded this year will also be included in the exhibition programme of the collection’s wandering show. After the successful experiences of Paris, Milan, Buenos Aires, Warsaw, New York, etc., the next stage is expected to be in Vienna at the beginning of June: the prestigious MAK, The Design Museum of the city, is going to host a suggestive show path where the visitors are led towards the discovery of the “light works”.
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