Art Moves 2023
16th International Festival of Art on Billboards
September 1 – October 5, Toruń, Poland
In 2023 year, the festival was organised in Toruń for the sixteenth time. Unfortunately, still in a truncated and crisis form due to the war, pandemic and the resulting economic crisis that has hit hard culture and art. Despite this, we do not give up, and we have prepared a huge chunk of visual reflections created by artists from all over the world. They concern a very important issue “What shift in our perspective do we need to see the bright side of reality, not just the dark one?” Like every year, during the festival, the city space of Toruń show the works of talented debutants and renowned international artists.
The artworks were exhibited in the city space of Toruń on billboards, citylights and LED displays. The model of presenting art in the city space works especially well in times of the crisis related to the epidemic as it allows recipients to safely participate in culture, without risking their health. For one month the city space will turn into a unique art gallery with valuable works, free of charge and available 24h/7. In this way, the works make a noise in the world and reach a wide audience, even those recipients who do not visit traditional art galleries and museums.
As always, the festival consists of a competition phase and then a presentation of the artists invited by the organisers. The best works were presented on billboards. Leitmotifs of our festivals always correspond with social processes and phenomena that shape the contemporary world. They stem from a deep sociological, psychological and philosophical reflection, and express our care of the shape of reality we are living in. International artists are largely interested in the competition and festival, which indicates the mesmerising potential of the idea of this event, and of public space that serves for deep reflections and social communication.
This year works relate to the leitmotiv of the entire event: “What shift in our perspective do we need to see the bright side of reality, not just the dark one?” 410 artists from 62 countries entered the contest “What shift in our perspective do we need to see the bright side of reality, not just the dark one?”. We received 774 artworks from Europe, Africa, North and South America, Australia and Asia!
In recent years, both we individuals, and the whole of humanity, have experienced a plethora of difficult and depressing situations and events. The pandemic, wars (including the war in Ukraine) and an increasingly noticeable climate crisis have had a negative influence on many of us. But these bad events are just one side of the reality we live in. This other bright side does exist – thanks to our joint and individual efforts, relationships, everyday work and care about the most important things for us. Nevertheless, when we surf the Internet every day or use other types of mass communication, when we try to find out what is happening in the world, we are bombarded with negative news that induces strong emotions, which are extremely difficult to defend against. This negative side of reality, unbalanced by the positive one, deprives us of life energy, triggers irrational fears, and steals our willingness to life and act. What shift in our perspective do we need to see the bright side of reality which could be an antidote to the dark side, give us power and hope to build a better present and future? Where should we look for this bright side? Or maybe positive events happen every day, at our fingertips, but we just do not notice them? Why is it like that? What actions, feelings and ways of thinking can help us achieve this? How can we function and act better and more positively in our own life, the surrounding environment and the wide world?
The jury panel composed of artists and curators, including:
Adam Niklewicz / artist / North Haven, Connecticut, USA
Mark Titchner / artist / London, Great Britain
Małgorzata Augustyniak / art historian, vice-president AMS SA / Warsaw, Poland
Rafał Góralski / artist, curator, Art Moves Festival director/ Toruń, Poland
selected 6 most interesting projects which are exhibite on billboards during the Art Moves Festival 2023.
Here is the list of honoured artists:
Piotr Depta-Kleśta / Poland
Jiasui Cai / China
Erick Ginard / Cuba
Chia Hsiang Lee / Taiwan
Łukasz Zwolan / Poland
Wenjie Huo / China
The Main Award of 4000 PLN receives Piotr Depta-Kleśta from Poland.
In this edition of the festival, we were exhibited the works by 30 artists from 11 countries:
The show on the billboards, citylightes and on the LED screen:
Piotr Depta-Kleśta / Polska
Jiasui Cai / China
Erick Ginard / Kuba
Chia Hsiang Lee / Taiwan
Łukasz Zwolan / Poland
Wenjie Huo / China
Lex Drewinski / Poland / Germany
Du Huanhuan i Li Mingliang / China
Chasel Peng / China
Mark Titchner / Great Britain
Joanna Górska (Galeria Rusz) / Poland
Rafał Góralski (Galeria Rusz) / Poland
The works of the following artists will be presented in the special show, on the pillar:
Agata Burnat / Poland
Grzegorz Kapelak / Poland
Christoph Stettler / Switzerland
Dawid Celek / Poland / Germany
Aleksandra Kortas / Poland
Michał Łącki / Poland
Inkar Zhumadilova / Kazakhstan
Jagoda Trębacz / Poland
Randriantsitohaina Manase Fidimalala / Madagascar
Paweł Miszewski / Poland
Magdalena Dylak / Poland
Rashid Rahnama / Iran
Gabriela Moskal / Poland
Su Jie / China
Szymon Szymankiewicz / Poland
Vojtech Soukup / the Czech Republic
Żaneta Zawada / Poland
Art Moves Festival was held under the honorary patronage of Piotr Całbecki, Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region and Michał Zaleski, President of Toruń
The festival has been co-funded by the Local Authorities of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region and Toruń Municipality
