The nominees for the Arendt & Medernach European Month of Photography Award were: Carina Brandes (Germany), Matthieu Gafsou (Switzerland), Weronika Gesicka (Poland) Alix Marie (France), SMITH (France). The winner of the 2019 edition is Weronika Gesicka.
This year’s jury was composed of five members of the European Month of Photography curators, namely Paul di Felice (Luxembourg), Verena Kaspar-Eisert (Kunst Haus Vienna), Jean-Luc Soret (Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris), Branislav Stepanek ( Central European House of Photography,Bratislava), Balázs Zoltán Tóth (Hungarian Museum of Photography, Kecskemet).
The 2019 edition of the Arendt European Month of Photography Award showcased the works of five young artists exploring the concepts of body and fiction, under the theme of Bodyfiction(s). SMITH (who goes by Bogdan or Dorothée at different times) creates a unique world for the viewer through their black and white photographs that intentionally blur gender. German artist Carina Brandes‘ photographs in black and white capture strange moments in everyday life, featuring self-portraits alongside figures from photography and art history, as well as animals in unexpected places. The young Polish artist Weronika Gesicka builds her imagination through research and exploring the mechanisms of memory and family representations from different eras. French artist Alix Marie‘s photography goes beyond the two-dimensional format, becoming sculptures, reliefs, objects, and installations. Her work focuses on our relationship with our own bodies and our attitudes towards their representation through objectification, magnification, and accumulation. On the other hand, Swiss photographer Mathieu Gafsou‘s photographs examine the worrying developments in our society from the perspective of “transhumanism.”
- Alix Marie
- Carina Brandes
- Mathieu Gafsou
- SMITH
- Weronika Gesicka
