MAF / LUNA 2018

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We are just living in the festive year 2018, in which our small town Leeuwarden is the European Capital of Culture. Time flew by this year and we have been able to experience the world of large and small festivals, projects and manifestations. And at the end of it all, we come up with a small but certainly nice edition of the Media Art Festival. Our scouts have been around town and country again, looking for the best up and coming media art talents. This year we present 13 Young Masters, 9 of which come from Dutch art academies, 2 from Germany, 1 from Tunisia and the Swiss winners of our audience award in 2017. It is no coincidence that the closing program of the LF2018, of which we are a part, is called ‘ReOpening’. With our Young Masters, the most likely future greats of the world of progressive and experimental art, we are eager to point out what is to come and offer every opportunity for acquaintance and discussion.

Halfway through MAF, from November 22 to 24, many more international artists will join, because then we will make the city shine for the second time with the LUNA Leeuwarden Urban Night Adventure.

We present exciting light and sound art and live performances at numerous locations in the city center around the LinkedUP – Communicate & Connection theme, which we consider very appropriate for this year that is so important for Leeuwarden. Through art we show and experience how the most different groups of people from our city and surrounding areas, artists from different disciplines and other professionals from diverse backgrounds play harmoniously with our beautiful city.

Below you will find the Young Masters exhibiting at the time, who won the YMAs in 2018 and the program booklet. And of course the LUNA artists of this year.

Young Masters 2018

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Young Masters Awards 2019

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Not one, but two young talents from the North won the Young Masters Award 2018 at the Media Art Festival in Leeuwarden last Sunday: the prestigious award for talent development in art. The winners were chosen by an international jury of experts during the Media Art Festival in Leeuwarden.

Both Anne Fie Salverda (Minerva Academy for Pop Culture, Leeuwarden) and Jakub Valtar (Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen) were awarded prizes. The winners were chosen from twelve nominated artists from home and abroad, studying or just graduated from renowned art academies. In the past two weeks, all twelve exhibited at the Media Art Festival in Leeuwarden. This year’s international jury was formed by sound artist Selu Herraiz (E), performance artist Laurenz Theinert (DE) and artist Alex Lehmann Bryner (CH), student in Postindustrial Design and member of the Swiss artist collective Bildspur.

Two winners

The fact that two winners have been chosen for the Young Masters Award this year is unique. However, both works of art were equally popular with the jury, who assessed the twelve works on, among other things, technique, intention, complexity and artistic potential. Anne Fie Salverda impressed with her graduation project Slice of Psycho. With music and visuals and inspired by surrealism, her performance tells the story of a young woman and her internal struggle to keep up with reality. The jury commends Salverda for her courage in presenting this personal work, as well as its “deep, emotional expression and beauty,” said jury member Selu Herraiz. The Czech Jakub Valtar won with his artwork One Second Psycho, coincidentally a similar name, but a work of art that stood out in, among other things, the very high technical level. In One Second Psycho, every second of Hitchcock’s classic is played simultaneously on a large screen. When a spectator touches the screen, the sound of that particular clip is played. Herraiz: “The artwork offers the viewer the opportunity to create ephemeral sound fragments themselves in the intense experience of being alone in a dark space.”

Month long stay at AADK Spain

Both winners can stay for a month in the AADK Spain artist residence for artistic research and production in the inspiring environment of the Spanish city of Blanca. The work period is supervised by the professional team of AADK Spain and concluded with presentations in Blanca, Leeuwarden and other locations from the international network of the collaborating parties.

Audience Award

During the two weeks that the Media Art Festival took place, the public could also vote for their favorite from the twelve artworks presented. The public almost unanimously chose the interactive installation Timbre by the artists collective Timbre Vibes. Designers Juriaan Gregor, Alène Jeanne Moor and Jay Roderick all study Interactive Performance Design at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht. Their impressive installation allows the viewer to experience their own voice in light that changes color according to frequency and in tangible vibrations. This installation was originally intended for a deaf audience, but it also offers hearing people an in-depth experience of their own voice.

Photo credits: Tom Meixner