Fertility Performance
The winners of State of the ART(ist) for the project Fertility Performance
Ethno Contemporary Ballet the winners of State of the ART(ist) for the project Fertility Performance.
The prize focuses on artists who face threats in form of repression, political persecution, unjust regimes and democratically legitimized government or face anger due to open hostilities, loss of livelihood from environmental disaster or natural catastrophes, and precarious living conditions due to exploitation.
“The Fertility performance – ‘A tender sisterhood turns into a bitter struggle. Humility and disobedience. The old must die, because only death can give birth to life! A stalk of wheat dries under the scorching rays of the July sun. Its grain sprouts through the warm, soft earth… and the dance begins’ (from a statement by the artists). The Fertility performance was created just two months before the Full-scale Invasion of Russia into the artists country began. Today the female members of the dance company live in Finland, while their founder remained in Ukraine. By awarding this project with the Main prize the jury manifests an unbroken solidarity towards Ukrainian artists suffering from the brutal war going on in their home country and being split apart as an artist collective.”
Jury Statement
“The brutal war of aggression against Ukraine and the repression against artists in Russia show that freedom of artistic expression cannot be taken for granted everywhere. Together with Ars Electronica, we are sending a signal of solidarity and offering artists a space for their work that is denied to them elsewhere. In this way, we are creating an international platform to strengthen freedom of expression.”
Alexander Schallenberg, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Austria