An Ye Zhi de Jong and Ietje Meerman winners Groninger Visual Arts Stipends

An Ye Zhi de Jong and Ietje Meerman have won the two Groninger Visual Arts Stipendia ‘Land’ and ‘Horizon’. This was announced by Kirsten de Wrede, alderman of Culture of the Municipality of Groningen, on Thursday 7 November. The stipends are awarded annually to stimulate the artistic development and cultural entrepreneurship of starting, promising visual artists and designers. The two stipends each consist of an amount of 20,000 euro for a one-year working period, and are linked to support programmes in which the artist's talent development is central.

From the total of 50 applications, the jury selected the winners. Both stipends have their own orientation; ‘Land’ focuses on researching and making an impact in the local region. ‘Horizon’ has an international orientation where the artist is encouraged to spread their wings and develop (part of a) project abroad. 

Ietje Meerman (winner Land) 

Ietje Meerman's plan involves a large investigation into the language of the northern Dutch landscape. This language is broader than words or sounds. With a visual search through moving images and sound, Meerman wants to map the identities of the different types of landscapes. Besides film, the artist will also work with (old) maps. She wants to use this material for collages that contribute to the audiovisual narratives. The jury is confident that, with the right guidance, Ietje can make a nice development as a young artist and also question the landscape in a broader way, with surprising results.

An Ye Zhi de Jong (winner Horizon) 

In her artistic practice, An Ye Zhi de Jong tells stories about adoption, racial identity and descent, through visual installations and creative writing. De Jong was born in China during the one-child policy and grew up as an adopted child in the Netherlands. For her project, she wants to explore the perspective of adoption from China's side. She wants to do this with a visit to the country. She wants to visualise the information gathered through film and interviews into new work that will come back to the Netherlands. The jury finds An Ye Zhi's plan clearly worked out and well-defined, and also finds the theme urgent and socially relevant. Her high-quality previous work inspires confidence in the jury. 

Nominees

View the proposals of the other four nominees.

Land Beth Wong and Sadaf Khani Horizon Cas van Deurssen and Lisa Edberg

Read more about the stipends