AMSTERDAM.- Unseen and ING announced the five finalists of the ING Unseen Talent Award 2019. The selected artists are: Elena Aya Bundurakis (1988, GR), Ulla Deventer (1984, DE), Irene Fenara (1990, IT), Kevin Osepa (1994, CW) and Karolina Wojtas (1996, PL). All five of them will undergo intensive coaching over the course of the next three months to produce a new body of work, under the direction of Adam Broomberg (1970, ZA) who, together with Oliver Chanarin (1971, GB), form the internationally renowned artist duo Broomberg & Chanarin. The works will be on view from 20 - 22 September in the ING Unseen Lounge during Unseen Amsterdam 2019. Through this award, ING seeks to support young talented artists who are pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium. The winners will be announced during the ING Unseen Talent Award Ceremony on 19 September.
ING UNSEEN TALENT AWARD 2019:
The ING Unseen Talent Award, a collaborative initiative by ING and Unseen, was created seven years ago to offer exceptional European photography talent an international stage. This is in line with ING's mission of making creativity and art accessible to a larger audience, while simultaneously supporting and promoting the contemporary arts community.
The 2019 shortlist, made by ING Art Management and Unseen, is based on a longlist selected by Futures, the photography platform for up-and-coming European photography talent. The scouts who have contributed to this are connected to: British Journal of Photography (Great Britain), CAMERA (Italy), Hyères Festival (France), FOMU (Belgium), Fotofestiwal Łódź (Poland), PHotoESPAÑA (Spain), PhotoIreland (Ireland), Photo Romania Festival (Romania), Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (Hungary), Triennial of Photography Hamburg (Germany) and Unseen Foundation (the Netherlands).
THE FIVE FINALISTS:
Elena Aya Bundurakis (1988, Greece)
In her recent work, Elena Aya Bundurakis creates dreamy compositions that revolve around her so-called 4 Fs: my Flesh, my Food, Fauna and Flora. Her work explores the boundaries between the artificial and natural, reality and fantasy, and reflects on our shared experience as living organisms.
Ulla Deventer (1984, Germany)
Ulla Deventer’s long-term art projects explore issues of the representation and perception of the female body, sexuality, desires and taboos, while questioning the interdependencies of women on social norms. Subsequently, she explores new ways of visual storytelling in photography and across media.
Irene Fenara (1990, Italy)
The central element of Irene Fenara's work is the way we look and see. Recently, she has specifically focused on the way that surveillance cameras often serve to record and control a space and the people in it. She uses these surveillance images to illustrate and emphasise the dichotomy between the observers and those observed.
Kevin Osepa (1994, Curaçao)
Kevin Osepa is a photographer born and raised on the island of Curaçao. His work revolves around his own identity as well as, in a broader sense, of Afro-Caribbean youth in a post-colonial world. The visuals he creates and the stories he tells are highly influenced by his youth. While the themes he explores are autobiographical, his work can also serve as a quasi-anthropological study.
Karolina Wojtas (1996, Poland)
Karolina Wojtas takes a colourful, chaotic approach to the subjects of childhood, education and love in Poland. In her work, images of empty classrooms are interspersed with ones of student activities, learning tools and visualisations of discipline and uniformity that as children we were likely not aware of.
