OPEN CALL:Submissions for Sixth International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC 6) 2019

The International Awards for Art Criticism Ltd. (IAAC) launches the sixth edition of their Awards this month (IAAC 6) and will hold a launch event for the IAAC 5 publication on Thursday, May 30, 6:30–8pm, at the Royal College of Art in Battersea.

The evening will include two panel discussions:
–The IAAC 5 Winner 2018: Wang Huan in discussion with Gang Zhiyi and Ling Min
–Followed by Sacha Craddock, Brian Dillon, Laura Grace Ford, Rachel Withers, conversation led by Juan Cruz, reflecting on the IAAC prize and “The currency & agency of art criticism in the formation of cultural and economic value.”

About the awards:

The awards are explicitly intended to stimulate new critical writing. The aim of these awards is to support independent critical coverage of contemporary art, away from the immediate pressures of the market, media and private or state patronage. They seek to stimulate good writing, critical thinking, dialogue and research. They are judged anonymously in English, but are open to candidates from anywhere, writing in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held anywhere in the world over the previous twelve months. There’s no age limit, and they are open to all.
As Ms. Gan Zhiyi, Director of the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum and Joint Chair of the Organising Committee will explain at the press conference: “We will always uphold the right to ask questions of authority and to test the value of received opinions. We believe in the value of what we support and earnestly hope we can communicate in good faith with those whose convictions we may, or may not, share.”

This year’s awards will be as follows:

First prize: 10,000 EUR plus a short visit to Shanghai or London for an essay in Chinese or English
Three equal second prizes of 3,500 EUR for an essay in Chinese or English
These International Awards are open to candidates from anywhere in the world. Submissions will be welcomed from 30th of May 2019 onwards.
The deadline for entries is Sunday, September 15, 2019.

Candidates should download and complete the application form from this webpage and submit it to the relevant email address below with the attachment of critical writing:
Chinese language submissions should be sent to iaac@minshengartmuseum.com, English language submissions should be sent to iaac@rca.ac.uk

Candidates are invited to write a review of 1,500 words or 2,500 Chinese characters on any exhibition of contemporary art, held anywhere in the world between 10 September 2018 and 10 September 2019. There are no restrictions on the contributors, in terms of their age, status or professional background. All submissions will be judged in conditions of strict anonymity.

The international jury for the IAAC 6 will be composed as follows:
Ami Barak, independent curator and art critic based in Paris; former President of the International Contemporary Art Curators Association (IKT)
Juliana Engberg, curator, cultural events producer and writer, curator of the Australian presentation at the 2019 Venice Biennale
Bartomeu Marí, independent curator and writer on art; former President of the International Committee of Museums and Collections of Modern and Contemporary Art (CIMAM)
Shao Yiyang, Professor of Art History and Theory; Deputy Chair of the School of Humanities, Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), Beijing
Anthony Yung, curator and writer; Senior Archival Researcher, Asia Art Archive (AAA), Hong Kong

Where possible, but only if relevant, please include with your submission a maximum of three images of the exhibition you are writing about, all cleared for publication. Entries must be submitted as a single PDF file no greater than 4MB—i.e. an “optimised” pdf. The entire email should be no more than 5MB and should include an entry form downloaded from the website. A shortlist will be selected for a web-publication as well as hard copies published in China only. All entries will initially be sorted and shortlisted by the organisers and academic partners in China and the UK, then translated into Chinese (for English-language submissions) or English (for Chinese-language submissions).

The International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) are hosted by an international Board, and organised by the China Minsheng Banking Corporation Ltd. (CMBC), the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum and the Royal College of Art (RCA), with the support of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and Shanghai Artemis Art Center (SAAC). The principal sponsors are Shanghai Minsheng Art Foundation and Anxin Trust Corporation Ltd. The Awards also receive the strong backing of the cultural department of the local government of Shanghai.