Paulo Cunha e Silva Award is to be allocated to all finalists

The winners of the 2nd edition of the Paulo Cunha e Silva Award in the field of Visual arts established by Porto City Hall for artists aged less than 40 years. The jury decided to award the six finalists: Basir Mahmood, Firenze Lai, Lebohang Kganye, Shaikha Al Mazrou, Song Ta and Steffani Jemison, and to distribute the monetary prize of 25 thousand euros among them all. The announcement is made, symbolically, on the same day that marks five years since Paulo Cunha e Silva passed away.

Owing to the pandemic constraints, the jury of recognized professionals, namely Isabel Lewis, John Akomfrah, Margarida Mendes and Shumon Basar, did not have the opportunity to visit the exhibit, on display at the Porto Municipal Gallery and judge, in person, the artwork by the finalists.

These unparalleled circumstances did not permit that the six finalists could install or supervise the assembly of the exhibition; hence, the jury considered that the necessary conditions to select a winner of this 2nd edition were not in place and suggested that the prize was equally divided among the finalists.

The jury had already assessed the portfolio of the 48 artists and had selected the six finalists, by decision of 16 curators. These are, citing the jury, “voices – aesthetics, ethics and techniques that articulate the current moment or even sense what is to come”.

The finalists are Basir Mahmood (Pakistan), Firenze Lai (Hong Kong), Lebohang Kganye (South Africa), Shaikha Al Mazrou (United Arab Emirates), Song Ta (China) and Steffani Jemison (United States of America).

The exhibit gathers the work by the six finalists and is on display till 15th November, at Porto Municipal Gallery. During the weekend, the Municipal Gallery is open between 10am and 12.30pm, owing to the mandatory curfew.

Entrance is free and a maximum of 30 people can visit the exhibit at the same time, in compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures.

This announcement is made, symbolically, on the same day that marks five years since Paulo Cunha e Silva passed away.

Paulo Cunha e Silva was a Professor at the FADEUP for over two decades and won admiration for his forward thinking, namely the establishment of the Chair in the subject of Introduction to Contemporary Thinking, but his activities rapidly expanded beyond the University.

In 2001 he was a leading programmer of Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture, and he was in charge of the areas of Thinking, Science, Literature and Cross-border Projects.

Between 2003 and 2005, he was Director of the Arts Institute of the Ministry of Culture. From 2009 to 2012, he was Councillor to the Portuguese Embassy in Rome. In 2012, he was Project Commissioner for the project "O Castelo em 3 atos" of the European Capital of Culture Guimarães 2012.

In 2013, he took on the most intense of his projects and became Councillor for Culture, upon invitation of Mayor Rui Moreira, and which he held this his death, on November 11th 2015.

In that same year, Paulo Cunha e Silva was elected Personality of the Year by Portuguese newspaper Público and one of the 200 most influential Portuguese by the magazine Visão.

Posthumously, Paulo Cunha e Silva was awarded the Porto Medal of Honour in 2016. Porto City Hall has also paid tribute to Paulo Cunha e Silva with the exhibition, which was later conveyed into a book, "751 Dias - O Tempo não Consome a Eternidade", [751 Days - Time does not Wear Out Eternity - free translation]. The book shares an overview of the several actions the former councillor for culture developed while in office.