The Chalupecký Prize was awarded to Dominik Lang on his third attempt

Prague - This year's laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award is thirty-three-year-old Dominik Lang. He has reached the finals of this prestigious domestic award for young visual artists for the third time. Lang received the award from the international jury, along with a prize of 100,000 crowns for a new project, at the Veletržní palác. He also gains a scholarship stay in New York and a residency at one of the Czech centers.
    "We were impressed by the maturity and thoughtfulness of Lang's intervention into the architecture of the Veletržní palác. In this work, as well as in his entire body of work, the sculptural language and the surrounding architectural space maintain a constant dialogue and keep a necessary tension," said the jury chairman, curator from New York's MoMA, Christian Rattemeyer.
    "It is a mild shock from all the attention, but of course it is also a great joy," the fresh award winner told ČTK. His previous finalist appearances, which did not end in victory, were certainly not disappointing for him. "Recognition certainly has its place in visual art, but in the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, it is not taken competitively," he added. This year's award ceremony took the form of a staged scene directed by David Jařab. It poked fun at how reportedly superficially and without deeper interest the media report on culture and art, but also at the artistic scene itself, often overly preoccupied with itself.
    According to the jury, Lang has been one of the most interesting artists in the Czech Republic and on the international scene for many years. Two years ago, for example, he prepared an installation for the national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which received great acclaim. In the last year, he significantly presented himself in galleries in Vienna and Rome. The jury thus clearly awarded the prize to Lang based on the balanced quality of his previous work and his current presentation.
    Lang's work is characterized by his engagement with gallery space, which he shapes into a work of art. In Venice, he prepared the installation "Sleeping City," in which he presented sculptures by his father Jiří Lang, some of which he modified and placed in new contexts. He himself wanted to explore his own past through his father's sculptures and at the same time create a portrait of a certain collective memory.
    In the final of the Chalupecký Award, he again played with the gallery space and the perception of the visitor. In creating his installation "East West," he did not use any new material, but rather removed from the existing exhibition panels in the Veletržní palác, into which he cut two circular openings. In these, the sun rises and sets, penetrating from outside into the gallery. An attentive visitor will also notice a large ball wandering freely in the ground floor of the gallery, which may evoke the sun.
    The "Finale 2013" exhibition, featuring other finalists Daniela Baráčková, Aleš Čermák, Václav Magid, and Richard Nikl, will run at the Veletržní palác until December 1. This year, the finalist works were also seen by people in Brno, České Budějovice, Ostrava, and Plzeň. The Jindřich Chalupecký Society also organized an international colloquium on visual art, "The Beginning of the Present," for the first time this year.