Best Work 最佳作品
Kavachi (1989-Sarayköy) graduated from the Department of Fine Arts Education at Muğla University/Turkey (2010), and received his MFA degree (2014) from Painting Department in Faculty of Fine Arts at Hacettepe University in Ankara, and a second MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at Bauhaus University Weimar (2018). He has been featured in a solo exhibition, “Mommy when will I get married?” (2017) at Third Space, Helsinki, and in various group shows in Copenhagen, Vienna, Thessaloniki, Weimar, Dresden, Berlin and Istanbul in 2019. He describes himself as living and working in space. On 2 September 2018, he changed his name from Ahmet Kavas to Kavachi, which is how he wishes his name to be recorded from then on.
Jurors’ notes:
“I worked in a restaurant before. I am a bit jealous of the big space shown in this work. But the situation is quite familiar with me from my personal experience. The narrative is strong, especially the moment when the screen of the phone appears. It tells me that the main character is probably a migrant from a country that speaks Arabic language. I learnt German for a while and did badly because it is so difficult. It somehow resonances quite a lot of my personal experience.” (Wong Chun-hoi)
“In the very beginning, it seems it is just very much documenting the daily life of a dishwashing worker. But then the moment of him studying a German language textbook elevates the narrative and grabs my interest: I then realised that it is actually the self-documentation rather than an “objective” study of others.” (Hugo Yeung)
“Yes, that is the art of narrative.” (Linda Lai)
***Overall, the jury supported the work to be awarded unanimously for its simplicity and precision of narrative work, and its contemporary relevance for under-represented realities, whereas the skills involved in achieving such qualities are tremendous.