MAF / LUNA 2019

Illusions

Time flew by, after the magic year of 2018, this year was far from empty or boring in our cultural capital. It looks like Leeuwarden knows how to keep the spirit alive.

At the end of this year we are back with a colourful, diverse and challenging edition of the Media Art Festival. We bring together many young aspiring artists and the newest trends and developments in the media arts scene. We selected 15 Young Masters from five European countries. Together with our Young Masters we point in the direction of what is next and very much later, and we offer plenty of space for encounters and discourse, with many special events during the two weeks of our festival.

Many of this year’s special events and artworks revolve about the central theme ILLUSIONS. Artists, scientists and the audience are invited to experience many types of artistic illusions and to critically discuss where ‘reality’ ends and storytelling starts. In this world of information and disinformation in which media technology plays a crucial role, we want to offer a platform to those who investigate new means of communication and innovative use of technology.

Halfway through MAF, November 28th to 30th, many more international artists enter the stage. Then the LUNA Leeuwarden Urban Night Adventure shine its light on the streets of Leeuwarden. Overwhelming and breathtaking installations of light and sound art will stimulate your senses and transport you in a world full of visual illusions.

Here you’ll find the Young Masters that presented their works back in ’19, who won the YMA’s and of course the artists of LUNA Urban Night Adventure.

Check the programme booklet here (in Dutch)

Young Masters 2019

Young Masters Awards 2019

MAF introduced the work of 15 recently graduated national and international media artists. All of them were eligible to compete for the MAF Young Masters Award and Audience Award.

ILDIKÓ HORVÁTH | WINNER MAF YOUNG MASTERS AWARD 2019
The winner of the MAF Young Masters Award 2019 is Ildikó Horváth with her workSub/liminal soundscapes. According to the jury: “We believe that it has a wide and rich conceptual proposal that brings up questions on interior and exterior spaces while playing with the notions of limits and expansion. Each detail shows the artist’s interest in the material and spatial resolution of the project. The interactive soundscapes allow us to get immersed in illusory worlds that create a contrast with the series of geometric objects. The dialogue between the sonic / digital aspect and the tactile / material one is, in our opinion, an interesting reflection on the current possibilities of Media Art. The care addressed to material, space and temporality are also worthy of being featured.”

Ildikó wins an artist in residency spot of one month, to be able to work and have an exposition at AADK Spain, near the Spanish town of Blanca.

The winner of the Young Masters Award 2019 was selected by an international jury consisting of: Katerina Mirović, director Ljubljana Lighting Guerrilla | Bettina Pelz, curator | Nicolás Dardano, AADK Spain.

REINOUT SCHEEPERS | WINNER MAF AUDIENCE AWARD 2019
The MAF Audience Award 2019 went this year to Reinout Scheepers for his work Circulux.

Photo credits: Tom Meixner

About the jury

KATHARINA MIROVIĆ

Katerina Mirović is working as managing director of Strip Core (being also its co-founder), visual arts-music-publishing section of Forum Ljubljana. Between 1992 and 2002 she was editor in charge of the Stripburger comic magazine (also its co-founder), after that she was editor of the Stripburger comic magazine, editor in chief and editor in charge of the magazine’s special book editons: Republika Strip, Ambasada Strip, Minimundus and O. In 2007 she cofounded Lighting Guerrilla Festival in Ljubljana, devoted to light art and public space, being ever since its curator and producer. As part of the program of the Lighting Guerrilla she created a Lighting Park in Ljubljana, where already three light art installations have been (permanently) installed in last four years.

BETTINA PELZ

Over the last twenty years, the curatorial work of Bettina Pelz is dedicated to art-in-context projects. Her transdisciplinary projects are hosted at art institutions and in public space, in postindustrial settings and cultural heritage environments. Since 2000, the focus of her curatorial research and practice is on light in fine arts. She has been the founding curators of several sustainable light art projects in Europe and Africa. As curator, as lecturer or as writer, she has been involved in projects in Australia, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Mali, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, South-Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia. bettinapelz.de | arsphotonica.net She has been the founding curators of several sustainable light art projects in Europe and Africa. As curator, as lecturer or as writer, she has been involved in projects in Australia, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Mali, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, South-Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia.

bettinapelz.de | arsphotonica.net

NICOLÁS DARDANO

Nicolás is an art director and university professor. He works as a graphic and motion designer, and alternately as an illustrator. His interest is focused on the research of new audiovisual media, participating on projects that involves hybrid and interdisciplinary formats through which he can explore space, light, video and sound: spatial design projects, installations, setting for performances, mappings, digital scenographies, and agumented reality projects, among others.

In the academic field, he works as a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, and Head of Applied Studies for Morphology course. He is also part of the team leading Design degree at Torcuato Di Tella University, being responsible for the Media lab. As an audiovisual artist, he has conceived live visuals for different musical projects and he collaborates in different experimental projects that link audiovisual arts and design through the platform AADK Spain.