Weekly News Roundup: January 10, 2025
By THE EDITORS
Stills from the winning works of the e-flux Film Award: (clockwise from top left) NOOR ABED, A Night We Held Between, 2024: 30 min; TAIKI SAKPISIT, The Spirit Level, 2023: 20 min; ANNA SCHERBYNA, Scales, 2024: 13 min; and MARYAM TAFAKORY, Mast-del, 2023: 17 min. Courtesy e-flux, New York.
e-flux Film Award Winners Announced
International art platform e-flux has named the recipients of its second e-flux Film Award, which celebrates artists who challenge the thematic and aesthetic conventions of moving images in the information age. Selected by a jury comprising Uzbek film director Saodat Ismailova, American media artist Shana Moulton, and Berlin-based scholar Elena Vogman, the annual award was given to three winners: Palestinian interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Noor Abed received the USD 3,000 first prize for A Night We Held Between (2024); Bangkok-based filmmaker and visual artist Taiki Sakpisit won the USD 2,000 second prize for The Spirit Level (2023); and Ukrainian-born artist, filmmaker, and curator Anna Scherbyna received an honorable mention for Scales (2024). Additionally, e-flux announced the inaugural winner of its e-flux Prize for Cinematic Ingenuity, which focuses on unique visionary filmmakers, and this year went to Iranian performance artist and filmmaker Maryam Tafakory for Mast-del (2023). The official award ceremony will take place on January 16 at the e-flux Screening Room in New York, where the winners’ films will be showcased.
Portrait of YOUNG-JUN TAK. Courtesy the SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation, Seoul.
Young-jun Tak Wins 24th SongEun Art Award
On January 7, the SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation announced Seoul-born media artist Young-jun Tak as the winner of its 24th SongEun Art Award for his compelling works that explore the intersections of LGBTQ+ identities, religion, and architectural forms. Tak was selected out of 20 finalists by a six-person jury for his choreographic film Love at First Sight on Monday (2024), which reimagines the love story in Norwegian writer Lars Mytting’s novel The Bell in the Lake (2019) through a queer lens. As part of the annual prize, Tak will receive KRW 20 million (USD 13,675), and two of his artworks will be acquired by the Seoul Museum of Art. Tak’s film and his new bronze sculpture Dangling (2024), along with works by the other shortlisted artists, are currently on view at the SongEun Art Space in the South Korean capital until February 22.
The main building of the New Taipei City Museum of Art. Photo by Hideaki Hamada. Courtesy the New Taipei City Art Museum.
New Taipei City Art Museum to Open in April
On January 9, the mayor of New Taipei City announced that the official opening of its first public contemporary art museum will be on April 25, and invited residents to a preview during the soft opening from April 8 –13. More than just a cultural landmark, the New Taipei City Art Museum upholds the vision of “local roots, global reach,” while aiming to engage with the local community and foster diverse artistic voices. Director Lai Hsiang-ling remarked that it aspires to be “a responsive institution that listens to [their] community.” Celebrating these values, the museum will open with major exhibitions including “NTCAM Collection: Encounters in Reflection,” which explores the city’s artistic heritage, “Reimagining Radical Cities,” taking a more international art perspective, and the interactive “The Ongoing Nature.”
Portrait of VICTOR WANG. Courtesy Victor Wang and M WOODS, Beijing.
M WOODS Artistic Director to Step Down Imminently
M WOODS Museum in Beijing has announced that Victor Wang will step down from his position as artistic director and chief curator in January 2025, ending his six-year tenure. Since joining the Beijing-based independent museum in 2019, Wang spearheaded partnerships with multiple international institutions, including the first collaboration between the British Museum and a private Chinese art museum, as well as a partnership with Tate to present American artist Bruce Nauman’s first institutional exhibition in China. Wang oversaw exhibition programming across multiple M WOODS locations and curated exhibitions on international artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Man Ray, Giorgio Morandi, and Richard Tuttle. According to the press release, plans for M WOODS’s new Beijing location will be revealed later this year.
Portrait of YU XUHONG. Courtesy the artist and Soka Art, Beijing/Taipei/Tainan.
Yu Xuhong Appointed President of the China Academy of Art
On December 26, 2024, the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai, announced the appointment of artist Yu Xuhong as president. The former president Gao Shiming departed from the academy in September of last year to assume his role as a member and secretary of the Secretariat of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Born in 1975 in Kaihua, Zhejiang Province, Yu explores contemporary expressions of Chinese classical imagery in oil painting through the themes of light, shadow, and landscape. His works have been featured in several national and international exhibitions, including the 12th National Art Exhibition and the Second China Oil Painting Biennale in Beijing, as well as the First Asia Biennial/Fifth Guangzhou Triennial and the 14th Havana Biennial in Cuba.
