The Szpilman Award is an annual art prize. It is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.[1] It was first presented in 2003 and is still the only award for ephemeral works worldwide. The prize is open for the public.
The Szpilman Award is initiated, financed and organized by German-based art group Szpilman. It was founded in 2003.[2] Initially only people from Germany could apply. Regulations were changed in 2004 and opened the call for Europe. The public interest in the prize raised. In 2006 Szpilman abolished any restrictions: everyone from all over the world[3] can apply now for the Szpilman Award. The winner is chosen by a panel of up to 10 independent judges including the winner of the previous year. The prize is accompanied with a dynamic cash award (sum of money collected by members of the jury parallel to the competition, called "Jackpot Stipendium"), a trip to Cimochowizna (Poland), and a challenge cup whichwill be handed over to the next prize winner in the subsequent year.[4]
Since 2008 the Szpilman Award is also running a daily bulletin about ephemeral works, called "Potz!Blitz!Szpilman!".[5]
To make ephemeral works more public and to show a greater variety of possibilities members of Szpilman Award curate exhibitions since 2006 in cities all around the world, called Szpilman Award Shows, e.g. in galleries, museums and public spaces in Austria, Germany,[6] Greenland, Israel, Italy,[7] Switzerland,[8] The Netherlands and Turkey.[9]
| Year | Winner | Work | Shortlisted | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | (Germany) | 'Keep on' | Shannon Bool David Borchers Karin Felbermayr Stefan Hurtig Alice Musiol Gudrun Schuster | ||
| 2004 | (Austria) | 'Ausstellung in der galerie.kärnten' | Shannon Bool David Borchers & Gregor Schubert Matthias Lehmann Alice Musiol Gloria Zein | ||
| 2005 | [10] (Kosovo) | 'Embassy of the Republic of Kosova, Prague, Czech Republic' | Wolfgang Breuer C5 Sarah Ortmeyer Michael Part Simone Slee Adrian Williams | ||
| 2006 | [11] (Germany) | 'Wenn jeder denkt, es ist für alle, dann füttert niemand die Fische' | Oleg Buryan Pol Matthé Stefanie Trojan | ||
| 2007 | (United Kingdom) Michał Sznajder (Poland) | 'Untitled (Muslim in Cage in Freud Museum)' 'Here' | Evangelia Basdekis Anja Brendle & Sebastian Höhmann MeMe Marc Nothelfer Poison Idea | ||
| 2008 | [12] (Poland) | 'Swing' | Giorgina Choueiri Julia Dick Sai Hua Kuan Kate Mitchell Chris Richmond | ||
| 2009 | [13] (Germany) | 'In den Zillertaler Alpen' | Jennyfer Haddad Gerard Herman Jaroslav Kyša Roy Menahem Markovich Alexander Thieme | ||
| 2010 | & Arya Pandjalu[14] (The Netherlands & Indonesia) | 'Treebute from Yogya' | Anna Gohmert Jennyfer Haddad Maria Victoria Muñoz Castillo Berndnaut Smilde Tomas Werner | ||
| 2011 | [15] (United Kingdom) | 'The Barrier' | Jaś Domicz David Horvitz Petr Krátký Jinho Lim Péter Szabó | ||
| 2012 | [16] (Bulgaria) | 'Bribe a Jury' | Kush Badhwar Alex Jones Max Schranner Amanda Wachob | ||
| 2013 | [17] | 'Untitled' | Vojtěch Fröhlich, Ondřej Mladý, Jan Šimánek and Vladimír Turner Ilisie Remus Marwin Rüffer RoByn Thompson Dominic Watson | ||
| 2014 | [18] | '1,2,3,4' | Robert Mădălin Demeter, Alexis Dworsky & Joachim Kaiser Dávid Gutema & Dávid Mikulán Lodewijk Heylen Maciej Szczęśniak |