The No Borders – Photography Exhibition Award is an international competition for Emerging Artists from Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Ukraine. No Borders focues on uniting people through photography (without borders), enhances cooperation among institutions and countries, and shows cultural differences as our strength.
The competition, initiated in 2021, lasted for over 5 months and became a learning experience and a meeting point for participants from all over the region. The educational program included online lectures and one-to-one meetings with experts from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine; a 4-day workshop in Bielsko-Biała as well as on-line events and open-air exhibitions of 48 awarded works, showed in V4 countries.
The First Award – a production of a solo exhibition with a catalogue went to Zsófia Sivák (b. 1993, Hungary) for her documentary entitled "Our Prices are in Forints" – a series about pubs in Hungarian rural areas. Other finalists participated in an Open Air Travelling Exhibition, which premiered during the FotoArtFestival (2021) and travelled to Slovakia, Czechia, and Hungary (2022), gathering international audiences.
"No Borders Award" is an international competition for emerging artists from Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Ukraine. The competition lasted for over 5 months in 2021 and became a learning experience of its own. By gathering more than 300 participants, it united young people through photography, and co-operation among art institutions was enhanced, while cultural differences were shown as our strength.
Emerging artists were invited to take part in conversation about reevaluating the local and the neighbouring in new, post-pandemic times. As the project and history evolved, we entered a new era in 2022, the time of war, where the cooperation, especially with Ukraine, gained a new meaning. A project about common values and neighbourhood turned out to be even more meaningful, especially in the context of solidarity. Thus the dissemination of the outcome of the project, by organising an open-air traveling exhibition, became also the expression of hope for better future in the world and for people united by art Together with our partners, finalists were selected to take part in a series of workshops, portfolio reviews, meetings, exhibitions, and catalogues – both online and offline. 48 young photographers from V4 countries and Ukraine were invited to take part in an Open Air Travelling Exhibition. The works were shown during the FotoArtFestival, organised in Bielsko-Biała (Poland) in October 2021 and then, in Slovakia, Czechia, and Hungary in June and July 2022.
The First Award in the No Borders Contest went to Zsófia Sivák (b. 1993, Hungary) for her documentary series called “Our Prices are in Forints" about Hungarian pubs in rural areas. Ms. Sivak received a production of her solo exhibition and the accompanying catalogue.
The educational program included online lectures and one-to-one meetings with experts from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine.
A 4-day offline workshop on self publishing was also organized as well as online and offline, gallery exhibitions of awarded works. No Borders Award is designed as an ongoing event, that will be carried on a biennale basis, having its climax at the FotoArtFestival in Poland. Its next edition is already planned.
The main idea is to create an event specified for recognition of the V4 Region's human potential, engaging professional collaboration, education and wider representation. The partners, including local galleries, are responsible for animating local environment and seeking participants for future events.
We hope this catalogue will promote young and talented artists and will spread the idea of co-operation and tolerance. We aim to increase awareness of common heritage including contemporary photography.