Swedbank Art Award announces the nominees for 2008

Swedbank and Kumu Art Museum today release the names of nominees for the Swedbank Art Award (formerly known as Hansabank Art Award). 2008 is the first year to include artists from Sweden and Russia in addition to the Baltic countries.

The winner will be chosen by an international jury and announced on the 4th of December 2008 at Kumu Art Museum (Tallinn, Estonia) at the opening of the nominees' exhibition. The winner will be presented with prize money of 10 000 Euros.

The nominees are:
Taavi Piibemann, Estonia
Miks Mitrevics, Latvia
Kristina Inčiūraitė, Lithuania
Alexander Vaindorf, Sweden
Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina, Russia

The five nominees are each chosen by their national jury. The members of the international jury are: Iris Müller-Westermann (Moderna Museet, Sweden), Maaretta Jaukkuri (Kunstnernes Hus, Norway), Norbert Weber (freelance curator, Germany), Jaroslaw Suchan (Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland) and Sirje Helme (Kumu Art Museum, Estonia).

The idea of the Swedbank Art Award is to acknowledge the work of one outstanding contemporary artist, the innovativeness and transcultural understandability of the artist's work.

The Swedbank Art Award was founded in 2000, then called the Hansabank Art Award. Due to the name change of the bank the competitions name was changed, as was the scope of the prize. During the first years it was only a national competition in Estonia. In 2003 artists from other Baltic countries - Lithuania and Latvia - were included. This year the award has spread across the Baltic borders welcoming artists from Sweden and Russia.


For futher information, please contact:
Maarja Võrk, acting Head of Public Relations, Estonia, Swedbank, phone: +372 888 5702 or
+372 5167 429, e-mail: maarja.vork@swedbank.ee

Ragne Nukk, Coordinator, Kumu Art Museum, phone: +372 602 6057 or
+372 5342 0681, e-mail: ragne.nukk@ekm.ee