The ZKB Prizes

Audience prize CHF 10 000.-

ZKB Patronage Prize CHF 30,000.-

The ZKB Patronage Prize is awarded annually to an artist or a company working in independent theatre, dance theatre or performance art, who have distinguished themselves and shown innovation in the creation of new work. The aim of this prize is to support the chosen recipient in their future projects. The criteria for candidates is that the significant work for which the award is actually given has had its premiere within the past three years.

The festival board nominates five to seven productions from the festival’s current programme. Precedence is given to artists who the board feel have yet to receive a level of public recognition that is commensurate with their achievements. Former winners of the prize are excluded from nomination.

The winners of the ZKB Patronage Prize 2019 are Samara Hersch & Lara Thoms (Australia) for «We All Know What's Happening».

ZKB Acknowledgment Prize CHF 5000.-

The Acknowledgment Prize allows for additional recognition and support of a nominee whose work is considered to be outstanding. It is awarded to a company or an artist for extraordinary achievement in such areas as choreography, dramaturgy, audience participation or acting.

Since 2012 all productions presented in «Short Pieces» have been nominated for the Acknowledgment Prize, unless the artists have not previously been nominated for the ZKB Acknowledgment Prize.

Winner of the ZKB Acknowledgement Prize 2019 is Ira Melkonyan & The Rubberbodies Collective (Ukraine/Niederlande) for «Upstairs Geology 50/50».

Jury

An independent jury, consisting of five experts, decides on awarding the prizes. The jury panel is chosen by the festival management and is presided by one of its members. This person is not entitled to vote. The jury consultations are not public; the decision for the awarded production is substantiated. The jury’s decisions are announced on the last weekende of the festival at the occasion of an award ceremony.

Members of the jury 2019 are the following experts. As an exception, the jury has only four members, as the Ugandan actress, author and festival director Asiimwe Deborah Kawe unfortunately had to cancel due to health reasons.

The idea

During the run-up to the 1996 festival, Markus Luchsinger, artistic director of the festival from 1990 to 2001, who passed away untimely in 2009, approached the Zürcher Kantonalbank, one of the festival’s main sponsors, with the idea of a patronage prize. He wasn’t thinking of an award for lifetime achievement or special accomplishment. Instead he had focused on recognition of a young, innovative, hitherto little-known individual or company. A substantial prize would be awarded annually at the festival. This would represent a significant financial contribution towards future productions involving the prize-winner. Briefly, it was to be a prize with long-term effects.

Markus Luchsinger’s proposal resonated ideally with the ZKB’s idea of sustainable cultural commitment. The criteria for nomination, the jury board and the award ceremony were discussed fruitfully with the result that the ZKB Patronage Prize of 20'000 Swiss Francs (today 30'000 Swiss Francs) was awarded that very year at the festival.

Today we look back with joy, gratefulness and pride. There is continuity: A long-term cultural commitment such as the ZKB Patronage Prize is not to be taken for granted: it enables the festival board to develop a perspective for the promotion of young talent in a way that reaches beyond the annual festival itself. In addition there is sustainability: The list of former prize-winners confirms that the prize has fulfilled its purpose: Stefan Pucher, 400asa, Sarah Michelson, The Living Dance Studio, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Eisa Jocson, Omar Abusaada & Mohammad al Attar have all triumphed with their subsequent artistic creations and have justified the faith invested in them. Festival audiences were equally given an opportunity to see that the original productions were not a flash in the pan as the majority of prizewinners returned to the festival with new productions.

And finally there is the impact: The Patronage Prize has added profile to the festival program as the denotation «nominated for the ZKB Patronage Prize» has become synonymous with riveting productions of promising young artists. In this spirit, the ZKB and the festival board invite you to give the nominees your special attention. They deserve it.