Live Art Prize: Jury Statement 2021

ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art

Jury statement, Kuopio 18 September 2021

Jennie Klein, Pilvi Porkola, and Maria Lind

We have now emerged from our very interesting jury discussions. We have learned a lot from the process and we feel privileged to have been given this opportunity by the Anti Festival International Prize for Live Art. This wonderful prize consists of 15.000€ cash for the winner , as well as 15.000€ for production support for a new work made for the next edition of the festival.

With Florentina Holzinger’s Apollon, we were struck by her willingness to engage with other areas of movement outside of dance, including sports, weightlifting, side shows, and acrobatics. This work has a great deal of ambition, courage, and inquiry, which we value. We were impressed by Holzinger’s ability to choose the right person for the part. Of particular note was Evelyn Frantti.

We appreciate Narcissister’s skills as a performer, especially timing and the creative use of props. We were particularly intrigued with the way that she plays with doubling, mirror effects, and illusions, and how the work harks back to the single person orchestra phenomenon of the nineteenth century. We were impressed with the DIY creation of props, costumes, and videos, reminiscent of some of the best video art of the nineties.

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins Tremble was mindful, gentle, and created a captivating non-judgmental space for how humans can relate to one another, in a shared space. The piece was modest in the best sense of the word. We really appreciate the variation in age, background, and training of the performers.

It’s Not A Thing by Keyon Gaskin addressed the institutional structure of performance art, including the inherent racist and gendered bias of the art world with a physical and smart performance. Their work is particularly pertinent for a U.S. context given the events of the past four years. This is challenging work that we hope will continue.

We chose Alex Baczynski-Jenkins as the recipient of this award because what was mentioned above, and also because of how his practice nurtures interdependence within and beyond performance – this is particularly urgent today.