The 9th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland has reached a special milestone: for the first time in the event’s history, all of this year’s award-winning artists will attend the award ceremony in Sfântu Gheorghe in person. The artists, arriving from countries around the world, will receive their awards on Friday, 2 October, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Transylvanian Art Centre, where the Sfântu Gheorghe exhibition will also officially open.
This year’s G9 open call attracted 1,034 artists from 71 countries, who submitted a total of 2,195 works. Following the jury’s decision, the Sfântu Gheorghe exhibition will present 142 works by 129 artists from 24 countries. The technical and conceptual diversity of the award-winning works reflects the broad spectrum of visual thinking that defines the possibilities of contemporary graphic art today.
The Grand Prize of the 9th Graphic Art Biennial was awarded to Japanese artist Akimitsu Tamawake for his work Seed, created using etching, drypoint, aquatint, chine-collé and spit-bite techniques.
The Nagy Imre Award, offered by Harghita County Council, goes to Hungarian artist Jónás Péter for his woodcut Szigetvár, while the Nagy Pál Award, offered by Mureș County Council, is presented to Polish artist Szymon Prandzioch for his aquatints The Cloud of Unknowing and Plan Your Rest.
The Plugor Sándor Award, offered by Covasna County Council, was awarded to Canadian artist Françoise Legris for her lithographs Carlos, Hélène and Michel. The MAMŰ Society Award goes to Hungarian artist Laviv Laura for her work Persecution, while the Lăzarea Art Camp Prize is presented to Romanian artist Diana Drăgan-Chirilă for her work Liminal Topographies 2.
The Partium Award goes to Romanian artist Nagy Réka for Trap II, created using drypoint and mezzotint techniques, while the Pulzus Art Camp Prize is presented to Hungarian artist Toldi Flóra for her work Distorts I–II–III. The Hungarian University of Fine Arts Prize was awarded to Polish artist Malgorzata Jozefowicz for Don’t Forget Us, while Polish artist Henryk Krolikowski will receive the Eszterházy Károly University’s Visual Prize for his linocut Us.
The Sfântu Gheorghe opening of the 9th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland and its award ceremony will take place on Friday, 2 October, from 6:00 p.m. at the Transylvanian Art Centre.
The event will feature speeches by Tamás Sándor, President of Covasna County Council; Bíró Barna Botond, President of Harghita County Council; and Kelemen Hunor, President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania. The exhibition will be opened by Ferencz S. Apor, curator of the biennial, and art historian Túros Eszter. Csuzy Fanni, Attaché for Foreign Economic Affairs at the Consulate General of Hungary in Miercurea Ciuc, will also attend the ceremony.
This year’s award ceremony brings the international dialogue that has become one of the defining characteristics of the Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland particularly clearly into focus. The artists whose works have been recognized by this year’s professional jury are travelling from Japan, Canada, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Their gathering in person in Sfântu Gheorghe reflects both the biennial’s international reach and the network of relationships it has built over the course of its nine editions.
This year’s theme, DISTORTION, draws attention to the uncertainty inherent in our perception of contemporary reality, the fragility of human perception, social and political pressures, the shifting nature of historical narratives, and the instability of truth. Rather than offering definitive answers to these questions, the selected and award-winning works bring together different perspectives and possibilities for visual interpretation.
Programme for the Coming Days of the Biennial
On 29 September, from 12:30 p.m., Echoes in the System, an exhibition by Orosz Anna, will open in the main hall of the Nagy István Art High School in Miercurea Ciuc. The exhibition approaches the questions raised by the biennial through the relationships between individual experience, the environment and different social systems.
On 30 September, from 5:00 p.m., the exhibition One and Multiple by the Graphic Arts Department of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca will open at the Szekler Museum of Ciuc. Held during the university’s centenary year, the exhibition brings together works by former and current lecturers and students, as well as artists who studied in Cluj-Napoca.
This will be followed on 30 September, from 6:00 p.m., by the opening of the Miercurea Ciuc exhibition of the 9th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, also at the Szekler Museum of Ciuc. The exhibition will feature works by 126 artists from 28 countries, approaching this year’s central theme, DISTORTION, through a wide range of cultural, social and personal experiences.
The programme continues on 1 October at 6:00 p.m. in Sfântu Gheorghe, at Lábasház. Italian artist Marco Trentin, Grand Prize winner of the 8th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, will present his solo exhibition Distinguishing Marks.
Through its programme, the 9th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland once again creates a meeting place where graphic art is understood not merely as a technique, but as a distinct mode of thought: a visual language for interpreting the present, raising questions and reflecting on the world. The simultaneous presence of the award-winning artists makes particularly visible what the biennial has represented from the outset: Szeklerland can participate in the international dialogue of contemporary art while itself becoming a meeting point within that dialogue.
The series of events is jointly organised by Covasna, Harghita and Mureș counties, the School of Arts and Crafts Sfântu Gheorghe, the Szekler Museum of Ciuc, the Lăzarea Cultural and Arts Centre, the Transylvanian Art Centre and the Mureș County Museum.