transmediale Award 2009 & transmediale Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2009

Press Release January 31, 2009
transmediale Awards 2009 & transmediale Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2009
Tonight the transmediale Awards 2009 were announced at the House of World Cultures in Berlin. The international jury awarded three works. Graham Harwood, Richard Wright and Matsuko Yokokoji from Great Britain received the first prize (endowed with 5,000 euros). Their installation Tantalum Memorial is a memorial to the people who have died in the wars in Congo over the metal coltan, which is used in cell phone components and has become more valuable than gold. The work also references to a 'social telephony' network used by the Congelese diaspora. The two second prizes (1,500 euros each) go to the Berlin based US-American artist Reynold Reynolds for his split-screen video installation which shows the life of six people in their apartments, isolated and unaware of each other, and to Rudolfo Quintas from Portugal for his interactive sound performance Burning The Sound about the nature of rituals, power and control.

The transmediale Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2009 is awarded to theoretical and critical practice works submitted for the competition. The prize in 2009, endowed with 2,000 euros, is split between publisher and world citizen Brian Holmes for his blog Continental Drift, and the Italian programmer Denis Rojo (aka Jaromil), who is honoured not only for his TBC (Text Based Code) but also for his complete works engaged in building networks, sharing tools and overcoming restrictions and borders. 905 artistic works from 53 countries were submitted for this year’s competition.

The jury was composed of Annick Bureaud (Paris), Bronac Ferran (London), Juha Huuskonen (Helsinki), Pooja Sood (New Delhi), and Christoph Tannert (Berlin). The jury of the Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2009 consisted of Olga Goriunova (Moscow/London), Andreas Leo Findeisen (Vienna) and Marcel Marburger (Berlin/Cologne). The festival transmediale.09 continues until tomorrow at the House of World Cultures.

Image download: http://www.transmediale.de/en/pressimages-main

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