The Embassy of Switzerland and Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) jointly hosted the Award Ceremony of We the Peoples, We the Arts 2019 on Thursday, 19 September 2019. At the ceremony, judges announced five winners across the country, and two special awards from among 34 finalists whose artwork on UN Sustainable Development Goals exhibited along with 187 submissions at Pakistan National Council of the Arts. The award ceremony was preceded by a panel discussion by jury member including Jamal Shah, Salima Hashmi and Amna Ismael Patodi from Pakistan and Giovanni Carmine from Switzerland and Alexie Glass-Kantor from Australia.
Director General of PNCA Jamal Shah kicked off the ceremony by a warm welcome and congratulating note for all of the participants for their contribution. He said that “the art is a mechanism to know yourself”. He further pointed that the word often used for Pakistan for her beauty is “soft image” is in fact unreal because more deepen level this word suggests that we the Pakistanis are ugly but in reality we are more soft than the word “soft image”. He said artists are responsible to show their presence by their artwork. Praising the role of PNCA he mentioned that although he would leave the office on 22nd (September), he is proud of the efforts made by the institution, which is a platform for artists. He added that he has best wishes for the PNCA. Next to Jamal Shah, in his welcome remarks Ambassador of Switzerland Thomas Kolly said that “culture makes interaction more easy”.
Salima Hashmi shared the memory of her teacher and said that her teacher Shakir Ali once said that an artist has a lonely path and there is no one to walk him but lucky are those who make their way out.
Giovanni Carmine has said that when he was asked by Stefanie Burri (Head of Cooperation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), to be a part of this jury he instantly accepted her offer. Earlier, as a member of the jury he said that “what I saw made me not just more curious about Pakistani art, but also convinced that a very talented and skilled new generation is emerging and ready to take off”.
Amna Ismael Patodi said that people facing social issues and the work of these young artists presents what is happening inside them.
After awarding the winners in the end Australian jury member Alexie Glass-Kantor encouraged the audience to purchase the art of these young artists as the raised money would be use to mentor at least one of the winning artists.
