POMONA Art Fund announces its first grants
Johan Grimonprez, Marie Zolamian and Hussein Shikha are each awarded a grant of 20,000 Euros
POMONA Art Fund, a newly created fund by SOFAM managed by the King Baudouin Foundation that supports artists and creative processes in Belgium, announces its first art grants. The laureates were selected by a jury of experts from a list of 33 artists. These 33 artists were nominated by an independent advisory committee of artists and other creative professionals. The winners were announced during a ceremony on Friday 7 February.
- The winners of POMONA Grant of € 20,000
- Emerging artist: Hussein Shikha
- Mid-career artist: Marie Zolamian
- Established artist: Johan Grimonprez
The 3 laureates each nominated 3 artists or arts organizations for a chance to receive a “Laureate Grant.” The POMONA executive committee decided with each laureate who would receive “their” grant.
- The winners of POMONA Laureates Grant of € 5,000
- Hussein Shikha nominates Sadrie Alves
- Marie Zolamian nominates La FAP
- Johan Grimonprez nominates Hilke Walraven
With these grants, the POMONA Art Fund aims to provide artistic talent in Belgium with opportunities to develop their best work. It is driven by the belief that every artist who is raised up also lifts up others—students, fellow artists, assistants, galleries, museums, cultural centers, and, of course, our art-loving public.
The POMONA Art Fund firmly believes that art requires support from various government bodies and that the art market plays an important role. However, this alone is not enough: for art and artists to flourish, a broader effort is needed.
With the POMONA Art Fund, everyone can contribute to making art possible in Belgium. Donations over €40 per year are eligible for a tax benefit: https://www.pomona-artfund.be.
The laureates who receive a POMONA Grant of 20,000 Euros
Johan Grimonprez, established artist
Johan Grimonprez (b. 1962, Roeselare) is internationally renowned for his films, which are composed of documentary material, downloads, historical archives, home videos, snippets of Hollywood films, news footage, and commercials. His work straddles the line between art and cinema, documentary and fiction, practice and theory.
With the help of the POMONA grant, Grimonprez is embarking on the development of his next film project: The Multispecies Parliament. This project is Grimonprez's attempt to find new, joyful ways of storytelling and to explore how we are interconnected while choreographing new narratives to share. Not as victims of the future paralyzed by dystopian nihilism, but in order to gather untold stories generated by asking better questions. As writer Rebecca Solnit suggests, “These stories are our tools for the wonderful possibilities in the terrible reality we face."
Grimonprez’s curatorial projects have been exhibited at museums worldwide, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and MoMA. His works are in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; and Tate Modern, London.
His feature films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997, in collaboration with novelist Don DeLillo, selected by the Guardian as one of the “30 great works in the history of video art”), Double Take (2009), and Shadow World (2016). Traveling the main festival circuit from the Berlinale to Sundance, they garnered several Best Director awards.
Grimonprez also published several books, including Inflight (2000), Looking for Alfred (2007) and a reader titled It’s a Poor Sort of Memory that Only Works Backwards (2011) with contributions by Jodi Dean, Tom McCarthy, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Slavoj Žižek.
His latest feature film, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Cinematic Innovation Award. The film also received the Persistence of Vision Award at SFFilm. It has recently been nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards.
Marie Zolamian, midcareer artist
Marie Zolamian (b. 1975, Beirut) is a multidisciplinary artist of Armenian descent who grew up in Lebanon until the age of fifteen. In 1990, she fled her homeland with her family and settled in Belgium.
Through various media, Marie Zolamian explores themes of uprooting, coexistence, and otherness. She works with visual sequences across different media, starting from painting. She describes her practice as “an experimental documentary form of fictional ethnology.” She intends to use the POMONA grant to invest in a core aspect of her artistic practice—a workspace that is as important to her as her studio, her library. Marie Zolamian has a strong passion for art books and books written by fellow artists. These objects open her to unique worlds and an endless genealogy.
Marie Zolamian has exhibited at venues including Bombon Projects Gallery, Barcelona (2024); Jester/CIAP, Genk (2022); Galerie Nadja Vilenne (2019 and 2016); Mu.ZEE, Ostend (2018); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2013); as well as group exhibitions at BPS22, Charleroi (2023), and Wiels, Brussels (2021).
One of her most significant public works is a 76 m² mosaic for the peristyle of the KMSKA (Antwerp, 2022). In 2023, she received the Ianchelevici Prize for her architectural integration at the KMSKA. Zolamian is currently showing her paintings in an exhibition with Witold Vandenbroek at Whitehouse Gallery in Brussels, on view until 8 March.
Hussein Shikha, emerging artist
Hussein Shikha is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, writer, and researcher. His work encompasses experimental film, animation, textiles, and interactive installations. Hussein uses the manipulation and transformation of the South Iraqi carpet (with all its philosophies) as a starting point to understand art and design from both Eastern and non-Eastern perspectives. In so doing, he explores possible shifts toward a more inclusive and less Eurocentric perception of art and design.
According to Shikha, the grant will help him contribute to real intercultural insights through his work. He aims to share his work in a way that is both culturally and socially aware, transcends simplistic categorizations, and fosters dialogue and empathy across cultural boundaries. By integrating heritage with digital media, Shikha seeks to create a tool to preserve and revitalize this knowledge. The loss of symbolism and textile knowledge is not only a problem in Iraq but also in Belgium, albeit on a different scale.
Hussein Shikha was born and raised in Iraq and moved to Antwerp in 2009. He obtained a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and an Advanced Master of Research in Art and Design from Sint Lucas Antwerp. He has presented his work at BAK, Utrecht; Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; TextielMuseum, Tilburg; Het Bos, Antwerp; Kunsthal Gent, Ghent; and Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp. He has participated in residencies at the Frans Masereel Centre; Z33, Hasselt; Morpho, Antwerp, and will join the 2025 cohort of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
How were the laureates chosen?
The laureates were selected by a jury of experts from a list of 33 artists, nominated by a group of artists and curators. The list was diverse, both in terms of art forms and life experiences, reflecting a country with many facets.
Jury:
- Regine Basha – Independent curator, consultant, and mentor
- Zoë Gray – Director of exhibitions, BOZAR
- Nav Haq – Associate director, M HKA
- Anne Françoise Lesuisse – Director, Biennale de l’Image Possible, Liège
- Joachim Naudts – Director, Extra City
The laureates who receive a POMONA Laureate Grant of 5,000 Euros
The 3 laureates each nominated 3 artists or art organisations, who were eligible for a "laureate grant." The POMONA steering committee, together with each laureate, decided who would receive "their" grant.
Johan Grimonprez nominates Hilke Walraven
Hilke Walraven focuses her observations on the everyday actions and rituals that have become so natural that they are almost invisible. Such actions, especially the interruptions within them, are captured in her installations. Just like someone stumbling breaks the automatic process of walking. Sometimes in the form of textual works, other times as sculptures and (spatial) drawings that seem to have been linked in a deceptively simple way. Behind this simplicity, however, lies great complexity: the works and observations continuously engage in a dialogue with each other, at times whispering, at times raising their voices.
Hilke Walraven (b. 1994) studied Fine Arts at the Utrecht School of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in several group and solo exhibitions in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem, The Hague, Nijmegen, and Den Helder, as well as in Buenos Aires (Argentina). In 2022, she moved to Ghent to pursue her Master's in Fine Arts. She graduated in June 2024 and has since lived in Ghent, working between Utrecht and Ghent.
Marie Zolamian nominates La FAP
La Fédération des Arts Plastiques (LaFAP) is an association that aims to unite and represent workers in the visual arts in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) to safeguard their interests. It campaigns for a proper professional status, fair compensation for artistic work, and increased government funding for the sector.
LaFAP is open to all workers in the visual arts, regardless of their status or career stage. Today, LaFAP plays a crucial role in defending a sector that has long been underrepresented and, as a result, has suffered from inequality, especially in terms of social rights and funding. The activities are based on four main pillars: coordination, information, representation, and formulating proposals.
Hussein Shikha nominates Sadrie Alves
Sadrie Alves is a multidisciplinary artist who works in the fields of visual art, design, and performance. The core of her practice starts from drawing as a symbolic act and a catalyst for emotional storytelling and collaboration. She views drawing as writing and singing as craftsmanship.
Sadrie Alves (b. 1997) was born and raised in Brasília and currently lives in the Flemish countryside. She obtained a Master's degree in Fine Arts from Sint Lucas Antwerp. Her work has been exhibited at Cas-co, Leuven; The Constant Now and Het Bos, Antwerp; La semaine du son, Hectolitre, and Komplot, Brussels.
Why a new fund for the arts?
POMONA Art Fund supports artists and creative processes in Belgium by awarding individual grants to artists in all visual disciplines at key moments in their development. Together with project grants and a solidarity fund, the fund also aims to promote the conditions in which the arts in Belgium can flourish.
With all its diversity, Belgium has an enormous wealth of artistic practices that are recognised and admired far beyond its borders. Yet, for many creatives in Belgium, making a living as an artist can be uncertain. With the exception of a tiny percentage who are able to live off their work, artists tend to have a vulnerable socio-economic position. By multiplying the opportunities that are available, you can nourish an entire artistic system.
The POMONA Art Fund wishes to be an additional source of recognition and support, alongside the essential contribution of the subsidising authorities, and the existing dynamics of the art market. The fund therefore seeks to strengthen the existing opportunities for artists in Belgium and invites everyone to help support the visual arts in Belgium.
Anyone can make a donation, whether as an individual, (cultural) organisations, or businesses. An annual donation of 40 euros, for example, grants the donor a tax reduction of 45% on their gift. Businesses may also deduct their donations as business expenses, with different conditions applicable beneath specific limits.
An independent advisory committee of artists and other creative professionals – including Luc Tuymans (visual artist), Otobong Nkanga (visual artist), Dirk Snauwaert (curator, director WIELS), Regine Basha (curator), Charif Benhelima (visual artist), Nav Haq (curator, associate director MUHKA), Sven Augustijnen (visual artist), Edith Dekyndt (visual artist) and Septembre Tiberghien (art critic and independent curator) – assists the POMONA Art Fund and monitors the quality, transparency and diversity of the various grants and funds. The committee will moreover maintain a critical eye on how the funds are distributed. The grants themselves are awarded by independent juries of experts, which are themselves composed with a particular view to their diversity, not just in terms of discipline and areas of expertise, but also regarding a sensitive balance of gender, origin, age, language communities, and international perspectives.
"Generosity is the key word in this whole process. Without generosity there is no art, and no culture. The POMONA Art Fund was born from the real necessity to generate additional funds for the arts in Belgium. After all, art is not something that can be seen within too narrow a scope; it develops according to its own laws, makes unexpected connections and offers an interface where different voices and visions can meet."
— Luc Tuymans, artist, chairman of the POMONA Art Fund committee
About POMONA Art Fund
The POMONA Art Fund, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation, is an initiative of SOFAM. SOFAM is a cooperative society governed by artists, non-profit, and since 1979 has specialized in copyright for visual artists. It is authorized to act as a collective management organization for the collection and distribution of resale rights. SOFAM places fair compensation for creative work and the interests of artists at the center of all its activities.
SOFAM advocates for the copyright and interests of visual artists: painters, sculptors, photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, and other visual creators. The core mission involves collecting and distributing collective rights. These are payments set by lawmakers for the benefit of authors as compensation for the copying and use of their works, including in businesses, education, and libraries.
The main reason an artist joins a collective management organization is that they can receive collective compensation easily, which they cannot obtain in any other way.
SOFAM firmly believes that targeted actions can serve as a lever for artists and can contribute to the flourishing of the entire artistic sector in Belgium.
Learn more about POMONA and how people can contribute here.
Selection of images of works by the laureats
HelenaVerfaillie-180-min.jpg "Hilke Walraven, 'Dagen van hout' / 'Wooden days' , graduation show KASK Gent, 2024, Foto : Helena Verfaillie")
