Prize rules & regulations
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art inaugurates the annual contemporary art Prize. The total prize value of 3.2 million rubles will be divided between artists (2.5 million rubles) and viewers (700,000 rubles). For the first time in history, the prize will be awarded through a public vote rather than by a closed board of experts. This makes Erarta Prize essentially different from other art prizes, reflecting the key principles of Erarta Museum:
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any work of art is a product of joint effort of its creator and the viewer, thus making the viewer a vital part of the creative process;
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art speaks to everyone, and not just the professional community;
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sharing becomes the spirit of the present time, and contemporary art should keep up with it;
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it is more important to love art than to be able to judge it according to generally accepted criteria.
Helping people to grow to love contemporary art is a crucial part of Erarta Museum’s mission; in keeping with it, Erarta will encourage the viewers to select their favourite artwork according to their own choices and preferences. Erarta Museum will curate the contestants’ exhibition (select the exhibits and stage the actual show), but will not take part in determining the winners or invite other experts from the professional community to do so.
The exhibition will be held from 9 February through 11 June 2023 at Erarta’s main exhibition space and will showcase 61 creations by our contemporaries selected by the museum out of the entire pool of works submitted by the contesting artists. The show will be accompanied by two rounds of viewer voting: on 10 April, 10 artworks will be shortlisted based on the outcome of the viewers’ secret ballot vote, while on 8 June the results of the viewers’ open public vote will be announced. The 2.5 million rubles of prize money will be distributed among the creators of the top 10 artworks according to the same principle: in proportion to the number of viewer votes received. Every viewer shall have one vote for each round. Anyone wishing to assure themselves of the fair and unbiased nature of the vote will be able to do so after all voting procedures are complete.
Erarta Museum will have no power over the vote whatsoever. The 700,000 rubles worth of prize money will be distributed among the viewers deemed by Erarta to be the most committed to and creative in supporting their favourite artworks.
Entries for the Prize can be submitted by the creators (artists and artist collectives) of any contemporary artworks existing in tangible form (thus excluding action and performance art) regardless of the artists’ place of residence and actual background in contemporary art and irrespective of the year of the artwork’s creation and its genre or medium, be it painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography, video, multimedia or installation art, as well as any other contemporary art form. Entries submitted by a party who did not create the corresponding artwork shall not be accepted, even if the said party is the legal successor to or official representative of the relevant artist. One artist can submit up to three artworks, although only one piece by every artist shall be selected for the exhibition. The artwork does not necessarily need to be in the private ownership of the artist taking part in the exhibition: artworks temporarily lent by their current owners may also be exhibited. The Museum does not ask anything in return for the Prize paid out to the winner; however, in order to take part in the project artists must prove their authorship and actual existence of the artwork (any artworks nonexistent as at the entry submission date shall not be accepted), as well as give Erarta Museum the right of public display of the artworks and their promotional use in connection with the exhibition.
Artists are welcome to address any inquiries to Erarta Museum’s Curatorial Team by emailing them at erartaprize@erarta.com.
additional provision to the rules and regulations dated 11 May
In order to guarantee that all shortlisted artists compete on equal terms, we have updated the campaigning procedure. As of 11 May, shortlisted artists may personally encourage the exhibition visitors to vote for their artworks while inside the museum building only on their scheduled meet-the-artist event date. Should any artist attempt to personally encourage the visitors to support his or her work at any other time, any and all votes received by the respective artist on that day will be cancelled. At the same time, the shortlisted artists may still actively campaign online on any day and without limitation: only in this case will the artists based in St. Petersburg and other cities be able to compete equally.