26 Oct 2010

Jani Ruscica receives AVEK award

JANI RUSCICA HONOURED WITH THE €15,000 AVEK AWARD

The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture has honoured visual artist Jani Ruscica with the AVEK Award. The award for media arts worth €15,000 was given in September at the season opening of AVEK in Media Centre Lume, Helsinki, Finland. The AVEK award was presented for the seventh time.

Jani Ruscica's (b. 1978) artistic portfolio covers video and photographic works. His art depicts culture-specific personal and collective stories with a human touch. Ruscica's cinematic works are based on creative collaboration with the subjects, drawing attention to the expression of the individual. His works study the crossover zone between film art, video art, theatre, and performative art while reflecting issues related to visual and cultural presentation.

Ruscica's media art has in recent years been presented in numerous international film festivals as well as in exhibitions across the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Finland, MoMA in New York, Tate Modern in London, and Centre Pompidou in Paris. His latest work Travelogue (2010), which unravels the presentation conventions on locations through travel stories from London, was produced in co-operation with the Camden Arts Centre in London.

Ruscica's retrospective videos have been shown at the Rotterdam and La Rochelle film festivals. His short film Evolutions (2008) where amateur actors reconstruct worlds, memories, and images of the past won the esteemed Cologne KunstFilmBiennale Main Award in 2009.

This year was the first time media art professionals had the chance to suggest suitable AVEK Award recipients. About 20 suggestions were submitted by the deadline. These were studied by the jury: media artist Marita Liulia, film director Mika Taanila, curator-researcher Minna Tarkka, and AVEK's media art production consultant Heidi Tikka. The AVEK Board of Directors chose the award winner based on the jury's statement.

The Award jury stressed that Ruscica is a highly talented young artist. 'In a relatively short time, Ruscica has succeeded in building a collection of audiovisual works that reveal meaningful, multidimensional stories both through cinematic expression and installation art', the jury's statement reads. The AVEK Award presented to Ruscica acknowledges this work.


AVEK AWARD RECIPIENTS 2004–2010

media artist Heidi Tikka (8 September 2004)
media artist Hanna Haaslahti (6 September 2005)
media artist Pekka Sassi (7 September 2006)
artist Adel Abidin (6 September 2007)
artist Pia Lindman (11 September 2008)
artist-curator Juha Huuskonen (10 September 2009)
visual artist Jani Ruscica (9 September 2010)


STATEMENT: AVEK AWARD 2010 FOR MEDIA ARTS

In 2010, the AVEK Board of Directors selected, from among its members, the following media arts experts for the AVEK Award jury: media artist Marita Liulia, film director Mika Taanila, and curator-researcher Minna Tarkka. The jury was then complemented with AVEK's media art production consultant, Heidi Tikka.

AVEK asked people in the field of media arts for suggestions for suitable award recipients. The open application process was carried out on the Internet, and roughly 20 suggestions with associated justifications were submitted by the deadline. The justifications conveyed genuine respect for the work of fellow artists, and the winner of the 2010 AVEK Award was, in fact, one of the nominees.

The jury went through all the suggestions thoroughly. They also had several discussions on the changes that have taken place in the field of media arts, and saw that cinematic and multimediatic expression had become more prominent in Finnish media art. Media art works are often cinematic, and artists usually create two versions of their works: a gallery installation version and a single-channel festival version. However, exploring new ways for experimental audiovisual expression is not restricted to media arts. It seems that the line between short film and media arts keeps shifting.

A situation where media artists have to consider the impact of different presentation contexts on their art and to create several parallel production paths is a challenging one. The integrity of the works becomes a crucial issue – quality that, at its best, comes across as multidimensional thinking, understanding of the special characteristics of different presentation contexts, and professional execution of audiovisual productions.

The winner of the 2010 Award for Media Arts, Jani Ruscica (b. 1978), operates in the above-mentioned crossover zone between media and film arts. His acclaimed works have been showcased in various international film and visual arts events. In his works, Ruscica examines issues related to location and positionality as well as human and non-human relationships. His works approach these issues through collaborative production processes. The meaning of the work arises when private and public meet. Ruscica's theoretical film analysis is visible in his works as carefully thought out structures and a reflexive bond with filmmaking and cinematic expression.

Out of Ruscica's diverse and abundant creations, the recent pair of films – Evolutions (2008) and Beginning an Ending (2009) – deserves a special mention. In Evolutions, young amateur actors aged 12 to 19 create performances where evolution and personal history become one. In Beginning an Ending, the amateur actors, adults this time, stage their visions of the future. Both works have been made in a film studio in such a way that the filmmaking process becomes a visible part of the story. These collaboratively produced works reflect the high regard in which Ruscica holds the participants and their efforts. The ethical aspect of his work was one of the major reasons that advocated his selection for the award.

The gallery performances of these works are spatial media installations where photographs and moving images are used to create a multi-perspective event. In Evolutions for example, the portraits of the young participants in their home environments expand the space of the stories of evolution, complementing the main story. Evolutions has been presented in various galleries in Finland, including the Kluuvi Gallery in Helsinki. Beginning an Ending has been shown in Finland during 2010, for example in Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Turku Art Museum, and the National Competition of the Tampere Film Festival. Evolutions won the Cologne KunstFilmBiennale Main Award in 2009.

Ruscica's latest work, Travelogue (2010), is a short film that draws an analogy between two technologies used to portray location: moving panorama and travelogue. It was produced in co-operation with the Camden Arts Centre in London. The subject reflects a certain cosmopolitan stance that is typical of Ruscica; many of his works have been created during his residencies across the world. A side-by-side comparison of Ruscica's works and residencies illustrates that he has been able to successfully use the international aspect of Finnish art in a meaningful way without losing the clarity of his mode of artistic thinking.

Travelogue is also a good example of how Ruscica's pieces of work exist on a solid media theoretical foundation, but still manage to be autonomous. Travelogue unravels the conventions of representing locations and shows that representational practices are always bound to time and the tools available. The film displays a running panorama machine that shows an empty white screen. This is not, however, an abstract gesture, because through the identifiable soundscape that is built in the Travelogue film the machine becomes located in London. London is also present in the historic textual quotes that help to bring out the gaps that remain between the feeling of location and the technologies with which it is represented.

In addition, Ruscica's earlier works, such as the short films Batbox (2007) and Beatbox (2007), bear witness to the fact that he is an exceptionally talented young artist. In a relatively short time, Ruscica has succeeded in building a collection of audiovisual works that reveal meaningful, multidimensional stories both through cinematic expression and installation art. The AVEK Award presented to Ruscica acknowledges this work.

On behalf of the AVEK Award jury
Heidi Tikka, media art production consultant


AVEK
The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK), which operates in connection with the Finnish copyright organisation Kopiosto, uses its share of copyright remuneration to promote audiovisual culture. The majority of the funds originate from private copying levy, e.g. from blank video cassettes and blank DVDs. AVEK funds the cultural exportation and development of different kinds of film genres, advanced training and further education of the people and organisations in the audiovisual industry, in addition to festivals and events. AVEK also funds the production of short films and documentaries, animations, and media art. AVEK funds the development of cultural content production through the Ministry of Education and Culture's DigiDemo grant.


For further information, please contact:
Juha Samola, General Secretary of AVEK, +358 9 4315 2351, www.kopiosto.fi/avek

Jani Ruscica, +358 40 708 5361, jani.ruscica@gmail.com, www.janiruscica.com