Congratulations to professors Roi Kuper and Eitan Buganim from Shenkar’s School of Multidisciplinary Art for winning the 2021 Minister of Culture Award in the plastics art category!

Every year, the Ministry of Culture and Sport awards the Minister of Culture Awards to artists in the plastic arts category in recognition of the Israeli artist, their craft and their contribution to society. This year, the prize was awarded to ten artists: Hadar Saifan, Vered Nisim, Fatma Shanan, Raya Bruckenthal, Noga Yudkovik Etzioni, Ran Salvin, Reuven Kuperman, Eli Singalovski, Eitan Buganim, and Roi Kuper.

Professor Roi Kuper is an artist, researcher and lecturer. He is one of the most experienced photographers in Israel and was formerly the head of the School of Multidisciplinary Art. From 1994 to 1998, Kuper served as head of the Department of Photography at the Camera Obscura School of Art. Until 2009, he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Photography at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Kuper has been a senior lecturer at the School of Multidisciplinary Art at Shenkar since 2008. 

Explaining the decision to award the prize to professor Kuper, the judges said: “Roi Kuper is a photographer and researcher of culture. Through his work, he explores philosophical ideas using the medium of photography. Over the years, Kuper has become known as a guide with a social and political compass – with principles – who helped generations of artists get started and made a significant contribution to the local culture with special and uncompromising sensitivity”.

Atlantic Wall - The work of Roi Kuper

Eitan Buganim is a video artist, creator, writer, curator, and has been teaching a video-art course at the School of Multidisciplinary Art since its establishment. 

Over the years, Buganim has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Israel and worldwide, including at the Julie M. Gallery and the Tmu-na Theater in Tel Aviv, Bat Yam Museum of Art, artists' studios, Contemporary Art Center Ramla, TamtamArt Gallery in Berlin, 10th International Istanbul Biennial, the Weidezlig Cinema Club in Barcelona, and at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in Germany.

Eitan Buganim, The Colorful (Yellow), 2019, PLA 3D print, 28.1 x 19.2 x 11.5 cm - unique

Explaining their decision to award the prize to professor Buganim, the judges said: “Eitan Buganim is a video artist who works in a 'journaling' style.

He creates video works based on cinema and photography that merge in the installations. Buganim’s visual language creates a visual sensory viewing experience that emphasizes the inconceivability of things, the longing. He deals with relationships in the family and in the neighborhood with an anti-heroic approach.”