HEADS awards: a new edition for more support to Young graduates

After six years that have established the New Heads – Fondation BNP Paribas Art Awards as a major event on the emerging Swiss art scene, HEAD – Genève and the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation have decided to provide an enhanced support mechanism to help assist the young prize-winners who graduate from the school.

Personal exhibitions in Swiss artistic institutions.

Each year, two artistic institutions are now invited by HEAD – Genève and the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation to select and organise the personal exhibition of an MA graduate in Fine Arts. For the 2018 New Heads – Fondation BNP Paribas Art Awards, the Centre d’art contemporain – Yverdon-les-Bains (CACY), represented by its Director Karine Tissot, chose to show the works of Sara da Silva Santos from 29 September 2018 while Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Le Locle, will showcase the works of Thomas Liu Le Lann in Le Locle from 2 November 2018. These exhibitions, organised with the support of HEAD – Genève and the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation, will require each prize-winner to produce new works for the occasion.

Feedback organised at artgenève

The New Heads – Fondation BNP Paribas Art Awards will maintain their presence at the artgenève art fair, showcasing from 31 January until 3 February 2019 a selection of works by the two prize-winners that will be produced for their exhibitions in Yverdon-les-Bains and Le Locle. This feedback is supplemented with the publication of a small monographic catalogue for each of the prize-winners, comprising images of their personal exhibition and a text written by an art critic. During this presentation in Geneva, a meeting is set up with the collaborators of BNP Paribas in Switzerland, following which they select a work by each artist to be added to the Foundation’s collection.

Encouraging support on all aspects of one’s early career

This new configuration for the New Heads – Fondation BNP Paribas Art Awards thus provides decisive support for the young award-winning artists for the beginning of their career with a first personal exhibition, a first monographic catalogue, a first showcase in an art fair, a first meeting with patrons and a first work in a company collection.