The awards offered by the 20th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil aim to acknowledge and encourage the development of artists producing compelling work, regardless of languages and media. They include prize money awards, partly related to the acquisition of artworks, and artist residency awards, in line with an established strategy of fostering experiences of exchange and movement as a means to stimulate creation and enhance trajectories. All awards were granted by the Festival jury, composed of guest curators and representatives of the residency programs.

Sesc São Paulo, the Festival’s presenter, offers three Sesc Art Collection Acquisition Awards, worth R$25,000 each, for video works. The following artists will receive R$ 25,000 each and their works will be included in the institution’s contemporary art collection:

Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca (Brazil/ Germany),
work Faz que vai (2015, video);

Filipa César (Portugal/ Germany),
work Transmission from the Liberated Zones (2015, video);

Quy Minh Truong (Vietnam),
work Vuon Bau Xanh Tuoi (2016, video).

The Ostrovsky Family Fund, which supports several cultural initiatives in the United States, Israel, and Brazil, offered the O.F.F Award, worth R$25,000, to the artist Jaime Lauriano (Brazil), works Morte Súbita (2014, video) and O Brasil (2014, video).

The Festival has consistently offered artist residency awards since the early 2000s, in cooperation with a dynamic network of partner institutions and exchange programs worldwide. Interdisciplinarity and focus on the South-South dialogue are important characteristics for many of these organizations, although they offer, on the whole, a diversity of experiences and lines of thought and work. The residency awards were granted by the Festival’s jury, taking into consideration the affinities between the research of each winning artist and the guidelines of each program. Five artists were awarded and will take part in two-month residency programs in 2018-2019, with airfare, accommodation and per diem:

Graziela Kunsch (Brazil), works Ensaio Ilú Obá de Min (2015, video) and Escolas (2016, video): Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Poland);

Engel Leonardo (Dominican Republic), work Pisos (2017, installation): Kyoto Art Center (Japan);

La Decanatura (Colombia), work Centro Espacial Satelital de Colombia (2015, video): Pro Helvetia (Switzerland);

Emo de Medeiros (France/ Benin), works Kaleta/Kaleta (2013-2017, three-channel video installation) and Vodunaut #009, Vodunaut #010, Vodunaut #011(from the series Vodunaut, 2016-2017, installation): Residência Vila Sul - Goethe-Institut (Brazil);

Natasha Mendonca (India), works Ajeeb Aashiq (2016, film) and Trance (2016, video): Wexner Center for the Arts (USA).

Andrés Padilla Domene (México/France), work Ciudad Maya (2016, video).

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Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art is the premiere interdisciplinary art center in Poland and one of the most vibrant art centers in Central and Eastern Europe. About four hundred events take place yearly at the U-jazdowskithat involve audience consisted of professionals, artists, students but also people not acquainted with art on an everyday basis. The residencies for artists, curators, designers, and researchers constitute an important part of the Ujazdowski CCC Art programme since 2002. They have accommodated almost two hundred residents from the whole world, allowing them to cooperate with important foreign institutions, galleries, and art festivals. For each foreign artist visiting Warsaw U-jazdowski, the team of curators Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka (head), Marianna Dobkowska, Anna Ptak, Agnieszka Sosnowska, and Aleksandra Biedka (office manager), create a unique network of cooperators, artists, activists, researchers, and institutions, regarding his or her individual practice.

The institution’s first residency program in the Southern Hemisphere is based in a city that is key to South-South cooperation. Situated in the Black Atlantic, it was the first Brazilian capital and boasts an African-Brazilian background. Exchanges between resident artists and between artists and locals are essential to the program, especially those focusing the connections between Africa and South America and the concept of the Global South. The institute houses a studio-theater, galleries, a patio, and a library. It offers ideal conditions for encounters of different formats, aimed at fostering reflection and stimulating cultural production.

The Kyoto Art Center is a cultural center dedicated to promoting exchanges between the global art scene and Kyoto. Its residency program offers support for emerging artists and researchers who wish to pursue creative activities in the city. The Kyoto Art Center was conceived as a meeting place for various genres of art as well as for creating new cultures through the revitalization of the city’s tradition, which is connected with technology, industry, and everyday life of its citizens.

The Pro Helvetia Residency Prize | South America Programmeis grantedbythe Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with the20th Contemporary ArtFestival Sesc_Videobrasilwithin the framework of the South America exchangeprogramme2017-2020. Theprogrammeaims to foster cultural exchanges and give rise to new partnerships between Switzerlandand South American countries. One artist based in South America willreceive a threemonth residency with one of Pro Helvetia partner residencies in Switzerland. The time and place of the residency will be defined together with the artist in response to his or her specific demands and research interests.

Among the diverse artists who receive production assistance from the Wexner Center each year, recipients of theWexner Center Artist Residency Awardconstitute a special category. A handful of artists spanning all creative disciplines are selected annually by the center’s director and curators to receive this distinction. Celebrating its 22nd anniversary this season, the Artist Residency Award program offers the most substantial support: considerable financial resources, along with technical, intellectual, professional, and moral support to develop new work.