<h1>The Jindřich Chalupecký Award for 2020 Will Have No Winner</h1>

Prague - This year's 31st edition of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award will not have a winner. This decision was made by the participating female and male artists who reject the principle of competition. The joint exhibition at the Plato Gallery in Ostrava will take place on October 14 without the traditional announcement of the winner. This year's finalists hope that this will provide equal space and attention to all of them, allowing the audience to fully focus on their newly created artworks without the necessity of comparing them to one another. Instead of a ceremony, a two-day symposium for the public will take place in Ostrava on December 4 and 5. CTK was informed about this by Veronika Čechová on behalf of the Jindřich Chalupecký Society.

The Chalupecký Award is an accolade for young artists up to 35 years old. For 2020, it has five finalists. However, since the jury sent one duo and one artistic collective to the finale, there are a total of nine young artists in the final. The group of ten artists is also complemented by last year's finalist Alma Lily Rayner, who could not participate due to health reasons.

"In our eyes, the Jindřich Chalupecký Award is not a trophy for a single laureate or champion, but a collective recognition of a diverse mix of female and male artists and their different artistic backgrounds, whose comparison makes no sense," the finalists stated in a joint declaration.

"I have been questioning whether it is really necessary to choose a laureate within the framework of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award since the very first edition I organized in 2015," said Karina Kottová, the director of the Jindřich Chalupecký Society, who, along with Veronika Čechová, is also the curator for this year's exhibition. "I consider it essential that the award supports the work of artists and communicates it to the broader public as clearly as possible. I do not think it is necessary for someone to ultimately 'win', especially in a discipline where competing is inherently impossible. I am glad that this year's finalists have made this decision, and I hope that with their help, we can also advocate for long-term changes," she added.

A similar development can be observed on the international scene. Artists nominated for last year's prestigious British Turner Prize rejected mutual comparison due to the social sensitivity and political engagement of their works. In 2017, finalists of the Slovak Oskar Čepan Award made a similar gesture by creating a joint exhibition project instead of individual presentations and received the award collectively. In the German National Gallery Prize, the finalists voiced their objections in a joint statement regarding the organization and presentation of the award, particularly concerning the absence of artist royalties and the emphasis on gender or the origin of the artists instead of the nature of their work. Similar tendencies have also been noted in the past among laureates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Roman Štětina in 2014 and last year's laureate Andreas Gajdošík decided during the announcement to divide the award among all finalists.

The exhibition of the finalists of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award was initially to be held at the National Gallery. However, this year the long-standing collaboration was refused due to the gallery facing a massive revenue shortfall, having to change its exhibition plan and prioritizing its own programs before realizing partnership initiatives.