The award winners

„Two publications printed by the KOPA printing house are among the award winners“

Every year, we wait impatiently for the results of the "Book Art" competition organised by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. Our country can hardly complain about any lack of artistic creative publications - 54 publishers presented as many as 116 books for the competition. The results of this competition are very important not only for publishers and printing houses, but also for designers and students, as well as for anyone interested in the possibilities or trends in the field of design and printing.

Beside the main Award of the Year, won this year by artist Lina Itagaki for the book "Sibiro Haiku", there are six other awards given to publications during the Vilnius International Book Fair in the following thematic groups:

1. Fiction and essays; 
2. Children's books;
3. Scientific, specialised literature;
4. Art publications;
5. Publications of artistic and documentary photography;
6. Bibliophilic and experimental publications.

In 2017, KOPA printing house produced two publications for which the designers received awards in their respective thematic groups:
In the category of Art publications, Jurgis Griškevičius won the award for the aesthetics of complex content and visual material structure in the book "Post Ars Partitūra". Compilers Agnė Narušytė and Gintaras Zinkevičius (the book was issued by "M puslapiai").

"Post Ars Partitūra" documents the activities of one of the most famous Lithuanian avant-garde groups "Post Ars", embracing actions, happenings, performances, installations, earth art and exhibitions . The group was officially founded in 1989 and secured its place in the world of art through its bold creations. "Post Ars" members - Aleksandras Andriuškevičius, Robertas Antinis, Česlovas Lukenskas, and Gintaras Zinkevičius - are also well known as independently creating artists.

In the group Publications of artistic and documentary photography, the award was given to Inga Navickaitė for provoking minimalism in the book by Rimaldas Vikšraitis "Homo Vikšraitis" (issued by Kaunas Gallery of Photography). Inga Navickaitė is a talented designer of a new generation, a graduate of applied graphics studies from Vilnius Academy of Art. The author not only creates designs for publications but also devotes a lot of time to illustrations. 

"Homo Vikšraitis" is an album of selected photographs taken over the last three decades by Rimaldas Vikšraitis. Vikšraitis' art is complex and difficult to categorise - it is consistent neither with the aesthetic tradition of the Lithuanian school of photography (represented by Antanas Sutkus, Aleksandras Macijauskas and Romualdas Rakauskas) nor with post-conceptual boredom aesthetics, in which the camera is used to register the emotional states of artists, their problems of vision and perception. Vikšraitis' photography is documentary and imaginary at the same time; the author is not afraid of standing bare in front of the camera.

All award-winning publications are exhibited at the Vilnius Book Fair.