MADRID – Artist Diego Bruno (Mirta Demare Gallery) was awarded on the seventh edition of the illy SustainArt Prize at ARCOmadrid_2014 with the art work Location.
The Prize, presented at the SustainArt space of illycaffè by Carlos Urroz, director of the ARCOmadrid fair, celebrates its seventh edition awarding the work of one of the artists of the Solo Projects: Focus Latinoamerica section, offering him of visibility and networking opportunities on the online platform www.illySustainArt.org.
The award comprises a cash prize of 15,000 Euros plus the possibility to present a project for an illy Art Collection cup, the famous collection of coffee cups through which, over the past twenty years, some of the most important artists from the international contemporary art world as well as a group of emerging talents, have expressed their creativity.
The international jury was formed by Jesús Carrillo, Head of Cultural Programs of the Department of Public Activities at the National Museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; João Fernandez, Assistant Director of Conservation, Research and Outreach Center at the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía; and Carlo Bach, artistic director of illycaffè.
The work of Diego Bruno was selected for its ability to combine historical memory with personal memory in an audiovisual piece that the jury described as “modern archeology.” Through two screens with two different types of language (written and visual), the installation presents a space gone with a traumatic past.
This duality of language causes a conflict in the viewer who becomes unable to synthetize the message and is therefore forced to choose between a language/screen and the other. The illy SustainArt Prize was established in ARCOmadrid in 2008, recognizing in its first edition the young Brazilian artist Matheus Rocha Pitta. During the second edition (2009) the prize went to Avinash Veeraraghavan, one of the emerging young talents from India. The 2010 edition awarded Mexican artist Camilo Ontiveros, and again in 2011 the prize was awarded to a Brazilian artist, the young Andre Komatsu.
In 2012 the award went to the Chilean artist Völuspá Jarpa, while the last edition (2013), saw the artist couple Julia & Victor Costales Rometti as the winners with the art work “Anarquismo Mágico”.
