On Award

2024

At the fifteenth edition of the festival, the ON Award was presented to Hungarian artist Áron Tóth-Heyn from Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest for his installation titled Us, Living on the Crust. The project delves into the concept of borders between countries, especially at the edge of the Schengen area.

The jury members were: Viola Fátyol, Jarosław Klupś, Silvia Saparová and Marcela Záchenská.

2023

The fourteenth ON Awardee is Taiwanese photographer Yu-Chen Hsu from the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Germany. Her project entitled Last serves as a time capsule of the memories of the millennial generation. A capsule that preserves non-digital images for the future when they no longer exist.

The jury members were: Tomáš Agat Błoński, Zuzana Pustaiová, Gabriella Uhl and Michaela Bosáková.

2022

The annual ON Award for 2022 and the solo exhibition opportunity went to Martina Havlová from University of West Bohemia in Pilsen for her project entitled My Coat Got Caught in Brambles. The project consists of a photo book, texts and seven pewter casts of nature products. It is primarily an invitation to perceive the passing of time, not as a line, but as a circle, symbolizing an optimistic return to the beginning.

The jury members were: Walter Bergmoser, Gábor Arion Kudász, Michaela Obermair and Zuzana Lapitková.

2021

At the twelfth edition of the festival, the ON Award went to Austrian artist Peter Pflügler from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, for his personal project Now Is Not the Right Time. It is based on the long-kept secret that his father once tried to commit suicide. However, as the author himself states, the whole work grew into a reflection on secrets and the impossibility of keeping them.

The jury members were: Szilvia Mucsy, Olja Triaška Stefanović, Jan van Woensel and Zuzana Lapitková.

2020

The eleventh ON Awardee is Hungarian photographer Bence Molnár from the Rippl-Rónai Faculty of Arts and Theatre, Szent István University, Kaposvár. His black and white document Inside tries to capture the feeling of loneliness that results from schizophrenia, using a conceptual approach. At the same time, it is intended to point out that the human being is primarily a social creature.

The jury members were: Andrej Balco, Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Tomáš Pospěch and Zuzana Lapitková.

2019

In 2019 The jury has chosen the work by the Hungarian student Daniel Szalai from the Moholy‑Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest titled Stadtluft Macht Frei which uses complex visual means to comment on the urban politics of Vienna towards pigeons. At the same time, it offers a parallel to the oppression created in the world of human social groups.

The jury members were: Damas Gruska, Reiner Riedler, Evžen Sobek and Zuzana Lapitková.

2018

Within the ninth OFF Bratislava, the jury awarded the prize ON Award to the Polish student Jadwiga Subczyńska from University of Arts in Poznań. Her project titled Remorphing, Renaming, Remaining describes the formation of a new type of material by combining a civilization waste with products of the nature’s activity and asks question about the lastingness and transformation of human made artefacts.

The jury members were: Jana Hojstričová, Jarosław Klupś, Dita Pepe and Zuzana Lapitková.

2017

The 2017 awardee became a Finish artist Eetu Linnankivi with his six video-portraits of young men titled Be Like A Man. The subtlety of his insight into the sensitive male soul is underlined here by an almost static video frame.

The jury members were: Judita Csáderová, Miro Švolík, Matúš Zajac and Zuzana Lapitková.

2016

In 2016 the prize went to the Polish student Katarzyna Wojtas from the University of Visual Arts Poznan. Her installation of layered found photographs titled “I do not trust memory” materialized a vision of an archive as a living evolving entity where something new originates from something old.

The jury members were: Dorota Sadovská, Ľubo Stacho, István Virágvölgyi and Zuzana Lapitková.

2015

The ON Award 2015 was given to the French photographer Swen Renault for his series Killing Bechers interpreting the message of this influential artist couple with his own typology of elevated water tanks, falling apart under the ravages of time.

The jury members were: Lucia L. Fišerová, Michaela Pašteková, Pavel Maria Smejkal and Dušan Kochol.

2014

The fifth award was given to eight Hungarian students from the Photography Department at the University of Kaposvár for their most exceptional exhibition. Their installation Interventions (2014) became an act of manifest itself. They started their revolution by questioning the status quo, denying what is customary in order to achieve newness.

The jury members were: Bohunka Koklesová, Lucia Nimcová, Štěpánka Stein and Dušan Kochol.

2013

The ON Award 2013 winner was Vendula Knopová with her project Two Walks and the Middle One Falls Down in which aesthetics mixes memories, banalities and awkwardness as a reaction to the surrounding world and social conventions.

The jury members were: Michaela Bosáková, Milota Havránková, Rafal Milach and Dušan Kochol.

2012

At OFF Bratislava 2012, the baton was handed to Dany Peschl for his exhibition To the Mountains, a series of untold stories and surreal situations taking place in the European mountains.

The jury members were: Vladimír Birgus, Juraj Králik, Jindřich Štreit and Dušan Kochol.

2011

The 2011 award went to a Slovak-Polish couple, Silvia and Bart Pogoda, with their project As If There Was No Tomorrow. The artists sensitively captured the spirit of a place where people live every moment of their lives as if it were their last.

The jury members were: Peter Homola, Juraj Králik, Ján Strieš and Dušan Kochol.

2010

In 2010, the first ON Award winner was Jana Žilčayová with her exhibition Brainstorm – a series of portraits reflecting on the experience with social interaction and integration of a girl from Eastern Europe into Southeast Asia.

The jury members were: Šymon Kliman, Jurak Králik, Jaro Žiak and Dušan Kochol.

Winners

Publications