Artist Kim A-young's video piece, "Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (2022)," has been awarded the Golden Nica in the New Animation Art category at the Prix Ars Electronica 2023, Gallery Hyundai said Friday. The award was given to Kim on Monday in Linz, Austria.
Kim is the first Korean to receive the Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica.
Established in 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica is the longest-running media art competition for digital arts, culture and music. A total of 3,176 projects were submitted from 98 countries this year.
Kim's 25-minute animated piece revolves around a delivery person named Ernst Mo, who works for Delivery Dancer, a delivery service platform in a fictional Seoul. While an artificial intelligence software named Dancemaster manages and directs her daily tasks and delivery schedules, Mo constantly encounters intersections to enter an alternative world, where she meets another person who resembles herself.
"I never thought that my/our work could be seen as an example in the field of art and technology. I deeply appreciate the fact that the jury members tried to expand the conception about the domain of ‘art and tech,’" Kim said in her social media post upon hearing the announcement.
Prix Ars Electronica rated Kim’s work highly for challenging the fashionable marketing narratives surrounding urbanity, modernity and individuality through a blend of 3D animation and live-action shots. “Kim's combination of philosophy, topology and classical physics with excellent visual storytelling creates a highly successful portrayal of the emerging multi-layered and uncontrollable world we inhabit,” the award's international jury said.
Kim is scheduled to participate in the Ars Electronica Festival held Sept. 6 to 10 in Linz for a series of film screenings and talks.
Kim's winning work was shown at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in August 2022.
