BARCELONA.- Taiwanese video artist Hsu Che-Yu (b.1985) is the winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2020, in collaboration with the Fundació Joan Miró.

Established by the Han Nefkens Foundation in collaboration with Loop Barcelona and the Fundació Joan Miró in 2018, the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award aims to increase contemporary artistic production in the video art field by supporting artists of Asian origin or nationality.

The jury remarks that Hsu Che-Yu “ingeniously amalgamates true tragedies of our world with technologies including animation and film to create compelling humanistic works. We wish to highlight his complex and sophisticated narrative structures as well as his subversive poetic commentary on the subject matter and we are looking forward to showing his multi-dimensional works in the future.”

Hsu Che-Yu receives $15.000 funding for the production of a new work which will be presented at the Fundació Joan Miró in November 2021 to coincide with Loop Barcelona 2021. Hsu Che-Yu’s work will also be presented in 2021/22 by Centre d'Art Contemporain, Genève; Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing; MOCA Taipei and ILHAM, Kuala Lumpur.




Hsu Che-Yu states: “I’m honoured to be awarded the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award this year. Most of my works explore the relationship between individual and collective memories from Taiwan. I'm happy these efforts find positive reactions outside my hometown and looking forward to collaborating with Han Nefkens Foundation in the coming year.”

Che-Yu was unanimously selected by a judging panel chaired by Han Nefkens, Founder of the Han Nefkens Foundation, joined by Andrea Bellini, Director Centre d'Art Contemporain, Genève; Carol Yinghua Lu, Director Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing; Dirk Snauwaert, Director WIELS, Brussels; Emilio Alvarez, founder LOOP Barcelona; Haeju Kim, Deputy Director Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Li Chen Loh, director MOCA Taipei; Marko Daniel, Director Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona and Rahel Joseph, Director ILHAM, Kuala Lumpur. The judging took part in the presence of Huai-ya Lin, researcher of MOCA Taipei;, curator MOCA Taipei; Hilde Teerlinck, General Director of the Han Nefkens Foundation and Alessandra Biscaro, coordinator of the Han Nefkens Foundation.

Hsu Che-Yu (b. 1985) is an artist based in Taipei and Ghent. He studied his Master's Degree at the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Taiwan National University of the Arts (M.F.A., Taiwan); from 2019 to 2020 he was a part of the post-academic research program HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Gent, Belgium).

Hsu Che-Yu primarily creates animations, videos and installations that feature the relations between media and memories. What matters is not simply the history of events traceable through media but also the construction and visualisation of memories, be they private or collective. Hsu Che-Yu has had solo exhibitions at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2015) and SAT Society for Arts and Technology (Montreal, 2012). Hsu has participated in the following group exhibitions: NYFF New York Film Festival (2020); IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam (2020, 2018); Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (2020, 2019, 2018); Shanghai Biennale (2018, 2012); London Design Biennale (Somerset House London, 2018); Bangkok Biennial (2018); Osmosis Audiovisual Media festival (Moscow, 2018); Asian Art Biennial (National Taiwan Museum, 2017); Experimental Film And Video Festival (Sonje Art Center, Seoul, 2017); Public Spirits (Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, 2017); Time Test: International Video Art Research Exhibition (CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, 2016) and Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale (2015).

From across Asia, the eight shortlisted artists for the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2020 were: Mr. Basir Mahmood (Pakistan, 1985), Mr. Che-Yu Hsu (Taiwan, 1985), Ms. Chloe Yap Mun Ee (Malaysia, 1995), Ms. Hira Nabi (Pakistan, 1987), Ms. Qinmin Liu (China, 1990), Ms. Que Chi Truong (Vietnam, 1987), Mr. Sokchanlina Lim (Cambodia, 1987), and Mr. Tulapop Saenjaroen (Thailand, 1986).

The original longlist of artists was scouted by Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Chae Young Lee (South Korea), Dar-Kuen Wu (Taiwan), Diana Campbell (US), Korakrit Arunanondchai (Thailand), Leonardo Bigazzi (Italy), Meiya Cheng (Taiwan), Roopesh Sitharan (Malaysia), Thao Nguyen Phan (also recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2018, born and living in Vietnam), Xiaoyu Weng (China), and Yung Ma (China).