Videonale Prize of the KfW Stiftung 2013: Christian Jankowski
Christian Jankowski wins the Videonale Prize of the KfW Stiftung 2013. From the 41 video works nominated, the six-member jury selected the artist’s video work “Casting Jesus”.
The members of the jury were: Anita Beckers (Gallerist from Frankfurt and co-founder of the Online-video platform blink video), Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg (General Director Kunstmuseum Bonn), Ade Darmawan (artist and founder of the OK video festival in Jakarta, Indonesia), Leonhard Emmerling (Head of the Visual Arts Division at Goethe Institut), Solange Farkas (Founder and director of the festival Videobrasil, Sao Paolo), Hans-Michael Herzog (Director of the Daros Latinamerica Collection).
“Videonale inspires because it experiments, because it never stops searching for new forms of presentation and also takes on controversial themes. Ideas and visions from the whole world are shared, society gains insight into ways of thinking and looking at things. This fits well with our goals – for this reason, the newly founded KfW Stiftung looks forward to continuing its
engagement in VIDEONALE.14 in the forthcoming VIDEONALE.15.” says Dr. Bernd Siegfried, managing director of the KfW Stiftung.
In its decision to award the Videonale Prize of the KfW Stiftung, the jury stated: Christian Jankowski’s films and installations hold a mirror up to our media society, as precise as it is full of humour. To do this he makes use of the conventional formats of the mass media, such as TV shows and soaps, in order to examine art, politics, entertainment, commerce and global marketing strategies, and to reveal their real motivation. For “Casting Jesus”, which takes place in a church in Rome, he managed to persuade three representatives of the Vatican to act as the jury and select the best Son of God out of 13 male actors applying for the role of Jesus. The situation which Jankowski set up ran true to the rules of classical casting shows, and surprises the viewer with the earnestness with which both the members of the jury and the actors played their respective roles. When we follow the comments and gestures of the protagonists, we also recognise the typical attitudes and gestures of Christian iconography. The 60 minute, two channel projection contrasts the biblical commandment “you shall not make for yourself any likeness” with the abundance of pictures and portrayals which, as a surrogate, have thrust themselves in front of the true Son of God. In his video, Jankowski, in a gentle way, persuades the Church to produce its own image of the Saviour, and at the same time questions the truth about the image of God. For the equally humorous and subtle way in which the artist, in his work, depicts the relationship between authenticity, faith and presentation, the jury unanimously awards the Videonale 14 prize to Christian Jankowski.
The Jury also commended Mariola Brillowska’s video “Des Teufels Kinder” (The Devil’s Children): Subtle, enigmatic, full of black humour is how Mariola Brillowska mirrors the cynicism which prevails in our society in her video “Des Teufels Kinder” (The Devil’s Children). Technically brilliant down to the smallest detail, every facet lovingly planned, in a manner which is both succinct and radical, full of wit yet at the same time with unforgiving, remorseless acerbity, the work, in its six episodes, takes a look at the conflict between the generations – and its definitive solution. An hour’s entertainment, bubbling over with irony and sarcasm - a refreshing comment on the social misery of the present time.
