[Leonardo/ISAST Network] 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award

[Leonardo Music Journal]

The 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award

Leonardo/ISAST is pleased to announce that the First Leonardo Global 
Crossings Prize has been awarded to Abdel Ghany Kenawy and Amal 
Kenawy, of Cairo, Egypt, a brother-sister team who have been 
collaborating on large-scale installations since 1997. These works, 
whether tower-like structures containing glass balls rising up 
towards the ceiling or tunnels leading to a block of frozen ice in a 
room surrounded by chiffon, demonstrate that there is no "natural" 
barrier between the worlds of art and science.

The Kewanys' unique collaboration is built partially upon Abdel 
Ghany's background in the physical sciences and Amal's background in 
filmmaking, yet their individual efforts cannot be so neatly defined 
as singularly "scientific" or "artistic." Committed to their creative 
processes, they work very closely together on every aspect of their 
projects from conceptualization and structural design to production 
and execution in their workshop. Characteristic of all their projects 
is the power of texture and image, and sensorial play with surfaces 
between spaces (loosening up the inside/outside polarity)--whether it 
is a "textured" video, the texture of light projected on a triple 
screen of chiffon, the texture of human hair bows on a pair of wax 
legs in a display case, or the textures (acoustic and visual) of a 
beating heart on which a pair of lace gloved hands is sewing a white 
rose appliqué.  For examples of their work see 
<http://www.thetownhousegallery.com/html/artists/amal_abdelghany_kenawy.htm>.

The three runners-up for the 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award are 
Regina Célia Pinto (Brazil---web-based and CD-ROM art), Kim Machan 
(Australia---curator, arts producer and consultant) and Shilpa Gupta 
(India---Internet, video and installation works).

Other nominees for the 2005 award included: Andres Burbano 
(Colombia), Kibook (collaborative team of Visieu Lac 
[Vietnamese-Australian], Mark Wu [British-born Chinese] and Stefan 
Woelwer [Germany]), Nalini Malani (India) and Hellen Sky (Australia).

The 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award, funded in part by the 
Rockefeller Foundation, was juried by an international panel of 
experts co-chaired by Nisar Keshvani (Singapore) and Rejane Spitz 
(Brazil). The award recognizes the contribution of artists and 
scholars from culturally diverse communities worldwide within the 
emerging art-science-technology field. The award is part of the 
Leonardo Global Crossings Special Project, supported by the Ford 
Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

For additional information about the Leonardo Global Crossings Award, 
please visit <http://leonardo.info/isast/awards.html>.
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