The illy brand is supporting promising designers and each year starting from 2004 selects one artist to be granted the illy prize (Premio illy). This year at Art Rotterdam the brand awarded a Dutch artist Lotte Geeven €10.000, and commissioned her to create a concept for the illy Art Collection, a series of art decorated illy coffee cups.
The contest was launched on the international scale and was had artists from around the globe partiisipating. Geveen became the first in the shortlist that included 5 nominees: her, Bedwyr Williams (Wales), Gregor Gaida (Germany), Rossella Biscotti (Italy) and David Adamo (Belgium). The winner’s works are extravagant and fresh, her sculptures and drawings, tables, chairs, a chest of drawers, are transformed into completely new objects. Geeven took them down to pieces and then put them back together, but in an unexpected way.
The jury of the illy contest 2010 consisted of Carlo Bach [Creative director illy caffè], Hugo Brown [art collector], Jhim Lamoree [art critic] and Martijn van Nieuwenhuijzen [curator Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam]. The previous years’ prizes were won by Alexandra Leykauf, Lisa Oppenheim, Louis de Cordier and Susan Collis.
The prize will be officially awarded at the 29th edition of the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art ARCOmadrid (Madrid, February 17-21).
The Italian brand has been showing its commitment to contemporary art for a decade and a half. In the span of 15 years it partnered with a number of art events and projects, in particular it supported the Venice Biennial and took part in research projects dedicated to emerging talents in art at PS1 in New York, Central St. Martin’s College in London and the Fondazione Pistoletto in Rome. It has also established a partnership with the most significant international fairs and exhibitions of Contemporary Art, with Art Brussels (Brussels), Artissima (Turin) and ArcoMadrid (Madrid) among them.
