Celeste Prize is an international contemporary arts prize and an online network for arts professionals. A new international contemporary art prize in which artists decide who wins the prize money! 40,000 € prizes in 5 prize categories: Painting, Photography & Digital Graphics, Installation & Sculpture, Video & Animation, and Live Media. Final exhibitions and awards ceremony in Berlin, Germany, end-September 2009 at the Alte AEG Fabrik, 5 Voltastrasse. The 46 finalist artists are chosen by a panel of international art critics: Mark Gisbourne, Adrienne Goehler, and Victoria Lu, while Live Media artists are selected by Claudio Sinatti and a panel of consultants with specific experience in audiovisual performance.
Deadline for prize entries: 30 June 2009. To enter the prize and/or be part of the community and meet other art professionals, you need to register on the website
Celeste Prize is organised by non-profit cultural associations in Italy and Germany: Associazione Culturale L’Albero Celeste and Celeste e.V. Both associations were founded by Steven Music, who has organised similar artist-led prizes in Germany, Italy and the UK since 2004.
Statement Berlin jurists, Adrienne Goehler, Mark Gisbourne, Victoria Lu and Claudio Sinatti:
“It is a charming idea to as it were revivify the idea of a final outcome of ‘artist(s) choosing artist(s)’, and is reminiscent of the traditional idea of artistic body of ‘Societies of Artists’, such as that which formed the Salon d’Automne of Paris, in 1906. The Celeste Prize thus appears on several levels to give a new and fresh format to things, expressing international artist connections through the internet, and with a mediating panel of art world professionals placed in the position of preliminary and intermediary assessment. Thus the art professionals set the discursive and outline of frame, while the final outcome in determined by returning matters to the artists themselves. Also the idea of an open and accessible entry, without barriers and inhibitions, as to the sources of applications and with regards to the participants is also a commendable idea. In the context of ‘art prizes’ Celeste has de-formalised things and extinguished many of the stultifying aspects of traditional art prize administration and their juries.”
Statement by Steven Music, founder of Celeste Prize:
“Celeste Prize has been some 2 years in the making, and now that it is with us, I hope we can take-up all that the online network offers, use it to create new working environments that enrich our lives and challenge us further, and give precedence to artists’ visions and views. Our Celeste online community is ‘CStudios’ we can use it to get to know each other better and other contemporary art professionals worldwide.”
CELESTE LIVE MEDIA PRIZE
The first Celeste Live Media Prize, which awards 8,000 € to the winning live media set. Finalist sets will be performed in Berlin, Germany in September 2009. The 6 finalists and the 15 shortlisted artists in the Live Media Prize category, are selected by:
– Claudio Sinatti, artist, Milan, Italy.
– Justine Beaujouan , co-curator & organiser of Mapping Festival, Geneva, Switzerland.
– Boris Edelstein & Ilan Katin, artists and developers of Modul8 software, Berlin, Germany.
– Lillevan, artist, Berlin, Germany.
– Bart van der Ploeg & Edwin de Koning , creators of Resolume software, The Hague, The Netherlands.
– Marius Watz, artist and curator, New York, USA.
Statement by Claudio Sinatti, selector for Live Media:
“The presence of a Live Media prize within Celeste Prize is an excellent opportunity for artists to share experiences and experiment. It is a chance for artists working working in audiovisual creation to meet, but more importantly the first international opportunity to present works outside specialist audiovisual events in an international context of visual contemporary arts. There is much stimulating research and creation happening in live media, including contamination with other media, which can result in new creative viewpoints being established.
I hope that projects presented to Celeste Prize’s Live Media section will take these factors into consideration, with resulting works being more open minded as far as the viewing public is concerned, and not the result of creation for narrow, sectorial interests alone.
hope Celeste Prize will stimulate all artists to produce highly personalised works which tell a story or raise emotions. For these reasons, it is with great pleasure that I am participating in the selection of Live Media works for Celeste Prize 2009, alongside other individuals whoose work I admire and who are contributing so much to make Live Media a recognised art form.”