Vida Meic the winner of Erste Fragments 12

Zagreb, 31 May 2016 – Vida Meic was presented with the Erste Grand Prix award this year for her piece Kompozicija 1, a polyptych consisting of nine author prints done in colography technique, which the jury of experts declared the best piece of the Erste Fragments 21 competition. Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (Erste banka) will provide the winner with a prize amounting to HRK 10,000 and the opportunity to set up an independent exhibition at the Kranjcar Gallery in Zagreb in 2017. Ivana Pipal received the audience award and a prize amounting to HRK 3,000 for her nine-segment polyptych The Right to the Night Sky, and Tanja Blaskovic, a student of the Academy of Applied Arts with the University of Rijeka, received an annual scholarship amounting to HRK 12,000. The bank also purchased artwork by Igor Ilic, Alen Kasumovic, Ana Kovacic, Mia Marekovic, Anita Prsa, Ivana Tkalcic and last year's winner Lana Stojicevic. Their pieces and the motivation behind them are presented in detail on the Bank’s culture platform Urbanka.hr and on Urbanka's Facebook page. All artwork will be exhibited at the Kranjcar Gallery, Kaptol 26, Zagreb by 1 June 2016.

The winners were picked from as many as 250 applicants by a jury of experts composed of the Director of Matica hrvatska Gallery and Kranjcar Gallery Vanja Babic, the Dean of the Art Academy in Zagreb Aleksandar Battista Ilic, Jutarnji list daily’s art critic Patricija Kis, freelance curator and modern arts producer, the President of the Association Nomad Vanja Zanko, academic painter and past Fragments winner Sebastijan Dracic, and Project Director from Erste banka Antonia Juric.

“The polyptych that the Bank bought is the product of synaesthesia of tactile studies of the matrix and the visualisation of this experience. In my opinion the value of these graphics is not in the final print, but in the process, principle and progress of work, as well as in all changes that occurred on the board and in the mind. A modification of the initial idea opens up the room for development, deliberation and conceptualisation. I find the sort of infiniteness of each print interesting because of their variability, with the moment when the print was born in the focus. This is definitely a result of coincidence and emotion. I could even compare the process to diary entries. On the other hand, each new coat of paint is loaded and dependent on previous prints and moments. The absence of literalness and suggestiveness leaves a breadth of understanding for the observer. I am fascinated by the different thoughts, understandings and impressions that give the simple, empty art elements a new dimension”, competition winner Vida Meic says about Kompozicija 1.

“The twelfth consecutive Erste Fragments have in many ways continued the tradition of the earlier editions of this interesting and profoundly helpful competition that Erste banka organises to buy artwork by young artists. The pieces that applied to the competition were again characterised by diversity of art techniques, author poetics and creative processes”, says Vanja Babic, the Chairman of the Jury, about the applicants in this year’s competition.

About Erste Fragments

Erste Fragments are Erste Bank's traditional project designed to financially support young artists and bring their work closer to the general public by buying their works and offering them scholarships. By buying their artwork, Erste banka strives to help young and emerging artists with their work and education, and later helps them present their work to the general audience. The Erste Fragments competition is organised every year since 2002. Over the years the Bank bought more than 160 pieces by young Croatian visual artists, which are now displayed at more than 130 different Erste banka’s locations (branches and offices) across Croatia. The authors of many of the pieces bought by the Bank, including Tanja Deman, Sebastijan Dracic, Ivan Fijolic, Alem Korkut, Ines Matijevic Cakic, Lale Rascic, Zlatan Vehabovic, Matko Vekic and many others, have in the meantime grown into esteemed and renowned artists in the Croatian scene.