Info

The 10th Best Media Arts Graduation Projects Competition from all around Poland is titled Threshold.

Representative graduation works have been selected from new media faculties of fine arts academies across Poland, including Krakow, Warsaw, Szczecin, Lodz, Katowice, Poznan, Gdansk, and Wroclaw.

Being featured in the Wroclaw exhibition among the eight chosen nominations is itself a notable achievement. Among these nominations, the international jury selects the best work, which is awarded the main prize of PLN 20,000, sponsored by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Additionally, the visiting public has the opportunity to cast their votes for their favorite piece during the exhibition.

New media encompass a diverse range of genres, constructing artworks that engage with phenomena and tools stemming from the advancements in technology, communication, and imaging.

The 10th edition of the exhibition, this year themed Threshold, encapsulates the latest artworks as a space for reflection, a point of departure, and a realm of transgression, confrontation, and tension between realms. The term “threshold” also symbolizes the transition into artistic adulthood, signifying the departure from the confines of the academy, fostering self-reflection, and shaping one’s artistic identity.

This word, in various contexts, materially and metaphorically, opens a wide range of meanings, indicating, however, in a process-oriented situation – change. From crossing a threshold, carrying across a threshold, not greeting over a threshold, thresholds on a fluke, thresholds of pain, thresholds in a river, poverty thresholds, to subliminal messages and psychological thresholds.

Staying on the threshold for a while, one can experience discomfort mixed with excitement. It is this intensity of sensation that conditions one to touch a borderline place. Here one can consciously decide whether to stay in the familiar or go beyond. We morph as we are shaped by new conditions, and our presence beyond the threshold, changes the environment, which also begins to undergo redefinition.

In this edition of the Competition, the works on display will include impression installations, video games and installations, 3d animations, publications, sculptural objects, and performative actions. Creative and critical insights will be found in the multifaceted actions and installations, both drawing on natural elements and using artificial intelligence. The diversity highlights the growing importance of media tools within contemporary art and their role in shaping reflections on the present.

In Adela Gorna’s animation Inner Room, we traverse the boundary between the imaginary and the real, navigating the inner and outer dimensions of ourselves. Jakub Kanna’s installation Fight or Flight physically challenges the limits of endurance, triggering adrenaline rushes and elevating our perception to new heights. Matthew Zubel’s game Intruder pushes us out of our comfort zones, offering insight into the complexities of dementia, including memory loss.

For the first time, this exhibition will also showcase selected works from the international Funken Academy program, which uniquely merges art, science, and technology. This collaborative project, facilitated by the Solitaer Club of Chemnitz, Ars Electronica, and the WRO Art Center, explores the intersections of art and technology through workshops, meetings, and presentations showcasing the outcomes of experiments conducted within master classes at the Fraunhofer Institute network. Through these initiatives, artists invite the Wroclaw audience to witness the technological transformations impacting our environment, bodies, and behaviors.

Artists:
Adela Górna (Wrocław)
Erwin Jeneralczyk (Kraków)
Jakub Kanna (Poznań)
Ksenia Makała (Katowice)
Klau Skuza (Warszawa)
Klaudyna Szymańska (Szczecin)
Milla Tomasik (Gdańsk)
Mateusz Zubel (Łódź)

Curator: Gosia Wrzosek
Visual identity: Kinga Gralak
Producer: Tola Kita

Organizers: E. Geppert Academy of Arts and Design in Wroclaw, WRO Art Center

Co-organizers: Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, The Strzemiński Academy of Art in Łódź, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań, Academy of Art in Szczecin, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw