Media release

Basel, 31 January 2018

Gina Proenza is the winner of the 2018 Helvetia Art Prize

Gina Proenza has won the 2018 Helvetia Art Prize. The winner is a graduate in "Visual Arts" at the Haute Ecole d'Art de Lausanne. The Helvetia Art Prize is a sponsorship award for young artists and endowed with prize money of 15,000 francs and the possibility of a solo exhibition at the LISTE - Art Fair Basel.

The 2018 Helvetia Art Prize goes to Gina Proenza (*1994). The winner holds a Bachelor's degree in "Visual Arts" from the Haute Ecole d'Art de Lausanne. Her prize-winning presentation is an amalgamation of works in different media. The starting point is the story of a Colombian village, which was founded by fleeing slaves in the 17th century and which remained undiscovered for a long time. The inhabitants shared not only their own culture but also the "Palenquero" language. The artist has a particular flair for storytelling and has succeeded in conveying her narration convincingly in scenographic format. She opens up spatial, narrative and even olfactory experiences, and is highly adept at implementing individual genres both in conceptual and visual terms. The jury also appreciated the worldliness of the questions she raised. Her work is promising, and the Art Prize is intended to make a substantial contribution to promoting her artistic development. The works of Gina Proenza can be seen at Plattform 18, which will take place at Kunsthaus Langenthal until 11 February 2018.

This year's Helvetia Art Prize jury comprises Peter Bläuer (Director of LISTE - Art Fair Basel), Raffael Dörig (Director of Kunsthaus Langenthal), Ines Goldbach (Director of Kunsthaus Baselland), Olivier Kaeser (Co-Director of Centre culturel suisse, Paris), Andreas Karcher (Head of the Helvetia Art Department), Nathalie Loch (Curator of the Helvetia art collection) and Peter Stohler (Director of Kunst(Zeug)Haus Rapperswil).

Start-up assistance as part of commitment to art

With the art prize, Helvetia Insurance promotes up-and-coming young artists embarking on their professional career. The Helvetia Art Prize is aimed at the graduates in fine arts and media art from Swiss universities of applied sciences. The prize is a dual form of assistance: on the one hand, the winner receives prize money of 15,000 francs and at the same time, has the opportunity to become known to an international expert audience and the general public with a solo exhibition at the art fair LISTE - Art Fair Basel. The art fair will be held from 11 to 17 June 2018. Since being established in 1996, the LISTE has actively promoted galleries and artists of the younger and middle-aged generation.

The Helvetia Art Prize is a key component of this internationally active insurance group's commitment to art. The prize has been awarded each year since 2004: initially under the name Nationale Suisse Art Prize and, since the merger of Helvetia and Nationale Suisse, as the Helvetia Art Prize. Helvetia, which also insures art, has one of the most important collections of contemporary Swiss art with a history dating back over 70 years. The collection focuses on painting, drawings and photography. Since 2015 Helvetia has had its own publicly accessible exhibition space in the Helvetia Art Foyer at the head office in Basel. This is where themed exhibitions, including works from the company's own collection, are staged as well as solo artist exhibitions.

The works of Gina Proenza can be seen until 11 February 2018 at Plattform 18, Kunsthaus Langenthal.

Plattform 18

1 to 11 February 2018

Opening hours:

Tuesday to Friday: 2-6 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Kunsthaus Langenthal

Marktgasse 13

4900 Langenthal

www.plattformplattform.ch

Picture caption: Le rut animal, 2018 (section), by Gina Proenza, work by the winner of the Helvetia Art Prize 2018, plaster, sieve and motors

Picture: Martina Flury

Picture caption: Suto, 2018, by Gina Proenza, work by the winner of the Helvetia Art Prize 2018, wood, chemically modified paint, loudspeaker

Picture: Martina Flury



This media release can also be found on the website www.helvetia.com/media.

For further information please contact:

Helvetia Insurance

Jonas Grossniklaus

Media Relations Manager

St. Alban-Anlage 26

CH-4002 Basel

Phone: +41 58 280 50 33

media.relations@helvetia.ch

www.helvetia.ch

About the Helvetia Group

In 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Today, Helvetia has subsidiaries in its home market Switzerland as well as in the countries that make up the Europe market area: Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg and Jersey. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 6,500 employees, the company provides services to more than 5 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 8.51 billion, Helvetia generated underlying earnings of CHF 491.8 million in the 2016 financial year. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note

This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.

This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.


Media release (PDF)
Le rut animal (JPG)
Suto (JPG)



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