Sky Arts - Sky Arts At Artes Mundi 4

The eight artists from around the world who have been shortlisted for Artes Mundi 4 were announced by Viktor Misiano on 8 October 2009.

The intensive selection process involved Artes Mundi receiving over 480 international nominations from more than 80 countries. The shortlist was chosen by two specially appointed selectors: independent curator and art critic Viktor Misiano, formerly Curator at The Pushkin State Museum and Director of the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) in Moscow, and Levent Çalikolu, Chief Curator at Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

Sky Arts met up with some of the finalists including Yael Bartana. An Israeli artist she creates complex visualizations with photography, film, video, sound and installation. Using documentation and re-enactments she moves between playfulness and seriousness. She divides her time between her homeland and Amsterdam, she often focuses upon Israel and the Israeli situation. She explores the details of everyday living and its rituals while relating them to the actions of the state and the constant presence of war and insecurity. Her works are visually and intellectually intriguing and centre upon human relationships as much as politics.

Olga Chernysheva uses a range of media to produce artworks that explore contemporary Russia. Based in Moscow her subjects are often observed negotiating a society in turbulence, where the sense of a shared future has disappeared. Her films, photographs, drawings and object-based works go beyond any appearance of the documentary and become lyrical images of individuals trying to make sense of their lives at a time when society is in obvious flux. Ordinary experiences become extraordinary and the viewer becomes aware of him or herself observing, critiquing others and their lives. She focuses on figures, on individuals offering a penetrating, psychological atmosphere

Chen Chieh-jen works with photography, film, installation and performance to explore issues connected to globalisation, in particular labour, consumerism and migration. He makes work as an act of resistance... ‘as an act of connection, linking together the history of people who have been excluded from the dominant discourse, the real-life situations of areas that are being ignored, and ‘others’ who are being isolated. In this way, I resist the state of amnesia in consumer society.’ Based in Taiwan he is also interested in his country’s particular position, seen by many as an independent country, but by China as one of its states.