05-03-2005


Marta Jurkiewicz, who is a graduate of Gerrit Rietveld acadamy in Amsterdam, has been selected by the jury as the winner of the 2005 René Coelho Award.

The award, which is named for René Coelho, the founder and former director of the Netherlands Media Art Institute, comprises a sum of 1250 Euro and use of production facilities to the sum of 3500 Euro in order to create new work. Eight Dutch art academies each nominate work by one graduating student, from among whom the ultimate selection is made. Within six months of the presentation of the prize the graduation project on which it was based and the new work will be presented in the Netherlands Media Art Institute.

Jury Report
The graduation project the video production Agatha is both a cinematic narrative and a video collage. The total picture is created by the constantly changing video fragments, which are shot from the same standpoint. The jury wishes to make known its admiration for the innovative manner of image composition, the natural manner of acting, the attention for lighting and the optimal employment of music and sound effects. In the works which Marta Jurkiewicz realized in the last two years of her study, it is clear that the visual language chosen is founded on systematic experimentation and investigation, and that she has developed it further. The jury is convinced that with her new project proposal she will make still another step forward in meaningfully experimenting with cinematic language.

The jury was comprised of:
Dick Tuinder (artist and writer)
Quirine Rack (artist)
Suzanne van de Ven (curator)

Heiner Holtappels (Director, Netherlands Media Art Institute, non-voting chairman)