Nka Foundation Announces the Winners of 2017 Land Art Competition for Ghana

OKLAHOMA CITY - April 27, 2017 - PRLog -- The 1^st prize winning entry is Earth Archive Project by Yusuke Suzuki and Léo Allègre of Yusuke Suzuki Design Office in Japan; the 2^nd prize goes toNonenegligible Village by the Urban Active Space Research Studio involving Team Members: Ruixuan Li, Jiazi Zhang, Qiuming Dong, Rui Xu, Ying Zheng, Xiaoming Wang, Ziyi Zhao, Yanying Zhao, Yuxiang Zhang, Na Li, Henan Wang, Pengzhe He at Dalian polytechnic University in China; and the 3^rd prize is awarded toAshanti Dominobythe design team of Sara Arfaian, Junko Yamamoto and Jenny Zhan in USA.Seven Honorable Mention were awarded to Fabric Shelter by Federica Crnjar and Silvia Invernizzi of Studio'dragora in Italy; Pesú by Lewis Haig, Eladio Hernando and Fergus McCarthy in Australia, Eternity Ground by Karolina Porada at the Cracow University of Technology in Poland; Never Seen by Hiroshi Ichikawa, a graduate student at Chiba University in Japan; Builder Nature by Saeid Alitajer, an Asistant Professor at Bu-Ali Sina University in Iran; Ghana Must Go by Pedro Silmon, a UK-based, independent, cross-disciplinary creative; and Half Sun I Full Moon by the team of Iulia Elena Popescu, Andra Samiș and Greta Samiș in Romania. See all submitted entries: http://nkaprojects.boards.net/thread/63/submitted-entries and you can download large files on the entries here: https://yadi.sk/d/n5NbGgiu3EBUV7

Through the 2017 Land Art Competition, Nka Foundation issued a challenge to creative practitioners and organizations dedicated to community placemaking. The competition was open to landscape architects, artists, curators, designers, architects, urban planners, structural engineers, university students and others from around the world to submit ideas for large-scale and site-specific public art installations based on site in rural Ghana. The submitted entries could be functional or nonfunctional works but must aim at creating a truly unique experience that becomes emblematic of what an arts village is and how it needs to function as a PLACE. The creators of each shortlisted entry are offered the opportunity to collaborate with Nka Foundation to organize a workshop to realize their project on site in Ghana to be exhibited as site-specific public art installations at Abetenim Arts Village in Ghana. The arts village is designed as a vocational learning center to provide relational spaces for creative people from the region and other countries to live, work, learn and create.

The selection jury consists of Hsu-Jen Huang, PhD and Professor in the Department of Architecture, School of Building Arts, Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA; Ingrid Lenz, Writer in Munich, Germany; Antonio Manfredi, Curator, Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), Casoria, Naples, Italy; Moyo Okediji, PhD and Professor in the Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts, University of Texas in Austin, TX; and Sabine Tastel, Architect and Urban Planner teaching international urbanism at KIT in Germany. The jurors used judging criteria involving functionality, aesthetics and technical matter toevaluate all entries in the contest. Prizes for first, second and third place consist of a commemorative certificate and a choice of cash reward or construction of winning design in Ghana.


WHAT IS NEXT?
As the construction of the best design entries is our priority, from February 2017 to July 2019, we are collaborating with some of the design teams in the competition and our partners to organize land art workshops to build the design entries at Abetenim in Ghana. The workshop to construct the 1^st prize winning entry, Earth Archive Project by Yusuke Suzuki and Léo Allègre in Japan will be held from February 1st to March 22^nd, 2018. The workshop to realize the 3^rd prize winning entry,Ashanti Dominobythe design team of Sara Arfaian, Junko Yamamoto and Jenny Zhan in USA will be from February 1st to March 22^nd, 2018.Whereas, workshops to realize some of the entries that were awarded Honorable Mention will run as follows: Ghana Must Go by Pedro Silmon in the UK will be from February 1st to March 22^nd, 2018; Eternity Ground by Karolina Porada in Poland will be held fromApril 4th to May 23^rd, 2018; and Never Seen by Hiroshi Ichikawa in Japan will run from July 1^st to August 25^th, 2018. More workshops will be added to the list. Through an open call for participation, each workshop will bring together students and recent graduates of architecture, landscape architecture, design, urban planning and others from around the world to join the workshop and play a part in line with their expertise.


THE BUILDING CHALLENGE!
The Land Art Workshop is designed as a group residency to bring together creative persons from different cultures to immerse in the local Ashanti culture and help build the entry to the 2017 Land Art Competition.  During the residency, each participant will be assigned a part in the project process, and participant will use the rest of the period to create own works. Selection of participants will be through an open call for participants.  The programme aims to foster collaborations for cross-fertilization of skills and knowledge among the international participants.Most evenings will be used for reviewing workshop progress along with informal discussions and digital presentations of portfolios by workshop leaders and participants. The workshop will end with a Community Day, a public celebration of the completed project by way of open house exhibition of the products of the workshop, public performances, and foods.

To participate, contact us at info@nkafoundation.org / www.nkafoundation.org .