At the exhibition "Osten Biennale Skopje 2024" the awards were presented and the 80th anniversary of "Osten" was celebrated.
With the opening of the official exhibition and the award ceremony of the "Osten Biennale Skopje 2024" on February 6, the great jubilee was celebrated - 80 years since the founding of "Osten".
Recommended
The significant and unique brand in culture, art and free expression, "Osten" as a newspaper of humor and satire first appeared on January 1, 1945. Since then, a whole host of Macedonian intellectuals, writers, cartoonists, artists and other creative individuals and institutions, all in their fields as workers, collaborators or supporters, have invested part of themselves in the development of "Osten".
In addition to publishing, since 1969, "Osten" has been organizing the oldest event in the field of cartooning - the World Gallery of Cartoons, and for about 20 years now, Mice Jankulovski, together with the "Osten" team, has been upgrading the brand in the field of contemporary visual arts with new activities, such as the "Osten Biennial Skopje 2024".
In honor of the anniversary, with an exceptional sense of gratitude, the "Osten" team awarded plaques to the families of those who contributed to the establishment and development of "Osten" 80 years ago, including Blaže Koneski, Kiro Hadživasilev, Vasilije Popović Cico, Petre Bogdanov Kočko, Slavko Janevski, Aco Shopov, Pande Jarevski and Vlado Maleski.
In its activities, Osten includes credible individuals and organizations with which it improves the level of organization of program activities. The Osten Council of Ambassadors is an advisory body composed of artists and art professionals from around the world with whom they have a common mission and who support Osten in achieving its goals, and the World Association of Visual Arts (WAVA) is a voluntary, independent, non-profit organization whose goal is to unite individuals and institutions that share the visual arts as a common ground.
The Council of Ambassadors of the "Osten" anniversary was enriched with three new members - Bruno Cora (Italy), Lars Kerulf Muller (Denmark) and Oksana Zhudina Bogo (Italy), who received "Osten Ambassadors" plaques.
Last year, Osten announced the winners of the Grand Prix for Lifetime Achievement, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and the World Cultural Heritage Award, which was awarded posthumously to Vangel Naumovski. Osten Ambassador Lars Kerulf Muller (Denmark) presented the World Cultural Heritage Awards to Vangel Naumovski at the ceremony in Cifte Amam, which was received by his son Rubens Naumovski, followed by the Artist of the World Award to Kiro Urdin, the Special Grand Prix to Simon Shemov and Mrgjan Bajic (Serbia), the Rembrandt Award for Exceptional Artistic Achievements to Jean Bogosian (Belgium) and the Balkan Artist Award to Dancho Ordev.
The growing interest in participating in the Osten Art Biennial is confirmed by the numbers: 273 artists from 51 countries with 863 works. Symbolically, the exhibition presents 80 award-winning artists and finalists from more than 40 countries. The exhibition's selector is Kornelija Koneska, and the members of the international jury are Bruno Cora (chair) from Italy, Dr. Pic Keobandit (member) from Belgium and Maja Kolaric (member) from Serbia.
First prize for drawing, graphics, combined technique on paper went to Pavol Truben from Slovakia, First prize for painting on canvas, installation, object went to K.S. Srivatshan from India and First prize for photography, video, multimedia went to Filip Joveski from S. Macedonia. Special jury award went to Sungchan Kim (South Korea), Nikola Marković (Serbia) and Marie Terauči (Germany), and Special jury recognition went to Anica Kitanoska (Italy), Bruno Pavić (Croatia) and Todoris Trampas (Greece).
The Osten Council awarded the Golden Osten Award to Stephen Balog (Hungary/USA), Anka Boeriu (Romania), Pantelis Tsatsis (Greece), Lia Lapiti (Cyprus) and Jana Lulovska (North Macedonia), while the Osten Award went to Tatiana Ahn (Netherlands), John Anthony (Croatia), Arleta Čehić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Philippe Leblanc (Belgium) and Judith Sturm (Germany/Spain).
The Osten Award for individual performance went to Lisette Solorzano from Cuba, the Osten Award for group performance went to the BAF group from Greece, while the Osten Award for national performance went to the state of Italy.
(The text was published in "Cultural Press" number 267, in the printed edition of the newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" on 8-9.2.2025)
