The Gaudenz B. Ruf Award 2009

Nadejdha Oleg Lyahova and Stefania Batoeva have won this years awards.

The Gaudenz B. Ruf Award 2009 was set up in 2007 by a Swiss national who lived in Bulgaria from 1995 to 2000, during which time he became acquainted with the rich cultural life of the country and convinced of its artistic potential.
The Award is financed through a fund established in Switzerland.
The aim of the Award is to promote and propagate artistic expression in Bulgaria in the field of visual arts and to focus in particular on the younger generation.
The Award is granted annually to a young and to an advanced artist, within the framework of a competition.

Almost ninety candidates – more than last year – presented their portfolios, of which 42 fell into the ”Young Artists“ category. 57 were applying for the first time. The selection procedure in two rounds (the shortlist established in the spring and the winners selected in the autumn) remained the same as in the previous years. However, the rules of entry to the competition were changed this year to allow Bulgarian nationals living permanently abroad to participate. This news seemed to have spread rapidly! About a dozen portfolios were received from candidates living in Berlin, London, Paris, New York, Vienna and elsewhere. Many of them were of exceptional quality and merited
selection on the shortlist by the jury. It would appear that the challenge of foreign art scenes is particularly stimulating for Bulgarian talents.
Given this high standard competition from abroad, the jury had an extremely difficult task when making their choices.
There was a partial change to the jury this year. Elena Panayotova
and Luchezar Boyadjiev, two of the founding members, stayed on for a third and
last year. They were joined by three new jury members: Lуrбnd Hegyi, a former director of MUMOK, Vienna and currently the director of one of France’s largest museums of contemporary art, the Musee d’Art Moderne in St. Etienne. It is very fortunate that this internationally known promoter of Eastern European art could be introduced to the Bulgarian art scene. Then Darko Senekovic, an art historian from Zurich, Switzerland with a Croatian background, who was previously involved in several art projects dealing with Eastern Europe. And finally Vessela Nozharova, an art curator and critic from Sofia,
who represents the younger Bulgarian generation.

The 2009 RUF award in the “Advanced artists” category won Nadejdha Oleg Lyahova who lives and works in Sofia, and in the ”Young Artists“ category - Stefania Batoeva who lives and works in Sofia and London.

www.ruf-award.org