OSKÁR ČEPAN AWARD 2010
The Oskár Čepan Award is a competition for emerging Slovak artists under 35 years of age. Aimed at supporting talented artists working in any genre or medium, the award hopes to support the artists in gaining experience at an international level.
The 2010 finalists included Petra Feriancová (b. 1977, Bratislava), Štefan Papčo (b. 1983, Ružomberok), Pavla Sceranková (b. 1980, Košice) and Jaroslav Varga (b. 1982, Trebišov). Both Feriancová and Varga made an appearance as finalists in 2008.
This year’s works spanned from markedly conceptual to deeply personal with outcomes ranging from traditional sculpture to simple videos.
- OSKÁR ČEPAN AWARD 201000:00:00.416
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- Who do you think will be the winner?00:00:04.055
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- Štefan Papčo.00:00:06.972
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- I don't know, but I want Štefan Papčo to win.00:00:09.326
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- I want Tomáš Džadoň to win.00:00:16.768
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- I was surprised by the selection00:00:19.504
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- but if I had to, I'd choose Štefan Papčo.00:00:22.652
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- The installation entitled "Existential Minimum"00:00:29.296
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- is a reflection00:00:34.589
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- on the relation between real, physical life00:00:38.629
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- and virtual life,00:00:42.490
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- connected with the surroundings.00:00:44.889
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- I created this object00:00:47.811
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- representing a basic element, a rock,00:00:51.669
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- in my perception.00:00:54.669
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- Its structure and appearance00:00:57.788
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- contain two basic aspects00:01:00.745
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- defined not only by the 3D visual style00:01:04.290
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- of computer games or cyberspace,00:01:09.036
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- but also by real rocks, real surroundings.00:01:12.335
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- This is how I'm trying to find the relation,00:01:17.155
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- the possibility of using the real world00:01:21.827
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- and the synthetic space together.00:01:25.537
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- The object is made of an old climbing wall00:01:28.786
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- that was used for 10 years.00:01:34.211
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- I really like the works of Pavla Sceránková,00:01:36.987
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- I like her sense for playing with objects.00:01:40.488
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- She knows how to work00:01:44.689
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- with the spirit of things and understand it.00:01:47.113
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- The general theme?00:01:51.711
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- I'm interested in perception00:01:55.024
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- in relation to memories00:01:58.775
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- and the reconstruction of the image00:02:02.083
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- caught in the memory.00:02:05.607
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- The starting point is always general00:02:08.632
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- but often leads to quite subjective results.00:02:11.467
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- Which artist should win the award,00:02:14.941
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- according to you?00:02:18.595
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- Dušan Záhoranský.00:02:21.529
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- I'd like to point out my latest work,00:02:26.339
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- this sculpture entitled "King of Old Slovaks".00:02:34.241
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- It is connected with a recent event00:02:41.374
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- that took place in Bratislava,00:02:44.874
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- the installation of the memorial00:02:47.874
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- of king Svätopluk.00:02:50.696
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- Most of my projects00:02:53.057
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- reflect the theme of the city,00:02:55.772
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- the life of the city and connected aspects00:02:58.827
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- like history, identity,00:03:02.489
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- sociological landscape, loneliness...00:03:05.014
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- My last project is entitled00:03:09.389
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- "Shrinking City, Expanding Memory".00:03:12.216
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- It reflects the phenomenon00:03:15.715
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- of shrinking cities in Eastern Slovakia00:03:18.400
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- through the story00:03:21.990
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- of an abandoned school building.00:03:24.705
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- Do you mean whether knowing a member00:03:27.565
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- of the jury might influence the result?00:03:30.414
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- Maybe. If the juror knows the artist,00:03:34.111
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- it may be an advantage00:03:37.647
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- because a simple review of a portfolio00:03:40.189
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- might be too rough to know the whole work.00:03:43.510
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- The juror who knows the artist00:03:46.967
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- might point out his name to the jury.00:03:49.931
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- But could this have an impact on the result?00:03:55.116
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- I also know some of them,00:03:59.555
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- maybe 3 out of 5 jurors,00:04:04.994
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- but it had no influence on the result.00:04:07.800
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- So knowing someone is not the main factor.00:04:11.397
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- I try to post-produce my own works.00:04:14.910
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- I reuse my old works00:04:18.775
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- from which I already untied myself00:04:24.443
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- so that I stopped hating them.00:04:27.659
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- In this case, there is this video00:04:31.858
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- based on time measuring.00:04:34.802
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- It is 5 minutes long and it contains00:04:39.266
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- one-second-long scenes00:04:42.544
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- from all my video tapes I could find.00:04:45.007
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- This is my way to handle relationships,00:04:48.732
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- or non-relationships.00:04:51.918
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- The title is "Me, without Relationship".00:04:54.795
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- It is about my relationship with the audience00:05:00.580
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- in the given situation.00:05:04.369
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- The competition has a big media coverage00:05:06.864
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- and we as artists are confronted00:05:10.628
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- with a non-informed public.00:05:13.763
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- So it's also about the responsibility00:05:18.637
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- towards the public, or the lack of it,00:05:21.758
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- because I have zero patience for this.00:05:25.174
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- I find very interesting00:05:29.621
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- the works of Cyril Blažo,00:05:33.941
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- XYZ, Boris Ondrejička, Denisa Lehocká.00:05:37.249
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- My tip for the winner was Jaroslav Varga.00:05:43.262
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- I think all the finalists00:05:48.387
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- and a good half of all the competitors00:05:51.335
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- know one or more members of the jury.00:05:54.844
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- To be honest, I think it's the same00:05:58.502
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- with the finalists of Turner Prize.00:06:02.148
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- They also know the jurors in person.00:06:05.184
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- It's not caused by our small scene.00:06:08.340
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- The art scene is always a limited space00:06:12.069
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- and the people certainly know each other.00:06:15.350