Lia si Dan Perjovschi – castigatori ai premiului The Princess Margriet
European Cultural Foundation (ECF) is delighted to announce that HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands will be present at the fifth ECF Princess Margriet Award with the laureates: conductor Yoel Gamzou and visual artists Dan and Lia Perjovschi, on the 19 March 2013, in Brussels.
The Princess Margriet Award acts as a platform for ECF’s support of those whose creative work can truly make a difference to Europe’s varied societies. At a time when culture is being erased from political agendas, we think it is vital to show the work of artists who speak to the imagination, challenge cultural stereotypes, and invite the public to think critically. The annual prize money awarded is €50,000.
Meet the Perjovschis
There will be a side event at 14.30 profiling the work of Lia & Dan Perjovschi at the Egg – a “conversation with the artists” moderater by Ann Demeester. The afternoon is a chance for the public to delve into the content and experience with the artists and draw/assemble knowledge and become part of a visual mind map – register here to attend. The ceremony starts at 16.45 and is by personal invitation.
The Fifth Laureates
Yoel Gamzou, living in Germany, is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the International Mahler Orchestra and 1st Kapellmeister and Vice Music Director of the Staatstheater Kassel. He was selected for his exceptional talent and energy in inspiring different generations of musicians and diverse audiences across Europe. The Award recognises his insightful conducting and his skill as a communicator in finding a new means of interpreting and engaging with classical music as a contemporary form of cultural expression. You can see him in Kassel with the Staatsorchester Kassel in the run up to the award.
Visual artist couple Lia & Dan Perjovschi from Romania were selected by the ECF Princess Margriet Award Jury for the active role that their art has played in Romanian culture and community building since the late 1980s, as well as its wider European relevance and global impact. With boundless generosity, the Perjovschis have used their studio as a public space, turning it into an accessible, bottom-up environment for cultural action and education, involving different generations to share knowledge and to envisage new spaces of imagination and possibility against dominant and undemocratic ideologies. The next show opening is at KIASMA, Helsinki (from 8 Feburary) and features work by Dan Perjovschi and he also has a show running at Kunsthalle Krems/Kunstraumstein until the 3 March in Austria.
The laureates have been selected after being nominated by a broad group of experts across Europe from different regions, disciplines and areas of cultural practice. From these nominations the PMA jury selected two laureates who challenge us to re-think the society we live in through their creative work.
The History
The Princess Margriet Award is an annual award given to European artists, intellectuals and activists whose work shows the power of culture in constructing a democratic and inclusive Europe. Previous laureates have included cultural theorist Stuart Hall, choreographers Jérôme Bel & Pichet Klunchun, dramaturg and activist Borka Pavićević, theatre maker Stefan Kaegi, artists Kutluğ Ataman and Šejla Kamerić, filmmaker John Akomfrah and curator Charles Esche.
The Princess Margriet Award was initiated in 2008 by the ECF named after the foundation’s former President Princess Margriet who has shown enormous dedication to culture as a means of understanding and valuing Europe’s diversity. It was established in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.