The Beate Sirota Gordon Award recognizes the accomplishments of an Austrian or Austria-based artist in the field of gender equality and women’s rights, by granting financial support for the implementation of a new artistic or cultural project in Japan, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo.
Given out yearly on International Women’s Day (March 8), the Award focuses on supporting the work of young and emerging artists who explore the role of women, gender equality, and gender expressions in the context of the 21st century. The winning submission is to be presented in Japan in the same year.
This award was launched in honor of Austrian-born Beate Sirota Gordon (1923-2012), who helped draft Articles 14 and 24 of the Japanese constitution after World War II. The articles gave women unprecedented rights in marriage, family, and society. Sirota Gordon’s legacy as an advocate for women and emerging artists is remembered to this day in Japan, where she is celebrated as a heroine of the modern Japanese feminist movement.
2024
Claudia Larcher
"AI AND THE ART OF HISTORICAL REINTERPRETATION: JAPAN"
2023
Elsa Okazaki
"INTO THE WILD"
2022
Martha Schnuderl
“DO YOU SEE ME NOW"
The winner will be awarded with a prize money of €6,000.-, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after announcement of the winner in spring 2025.
The Beate Sirota Gordon Award enables the creation of a new artistic or cultural project in Japan that explores one or several of the following themes:
The proposed project needs to have a clear connection to Japan, and can be in any artistic medium including, but not limited to, the following fields: art, design, architecture, film, photography, music, literature, performance, installations, hybrid media.
We encourage projects that give new outlooks and perspectives on the above topics and can engage Japanese and international audiences. After completion of the project, a presentation, exhibition, screening, or similar will be held at the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo in 2025. Collaborations with other relevant institutions and events are encouraged.
The Beate Sirota Gordon Award enables the creation of a new artistic or cultural project in Japan that explores one or several of the following themes:
We encourage projects that give new outlooks and perspectives on the above topics and can engage Japanese and international audiences. After completion of the project, a presentation, exhibition, screening, or similar will be held at the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo in 2023. Collaborations with other relevant institutions and events are encouraged.
The proposed project needs to have a clear connection to Japan, and can be in any artistic medium including, but not limited to, the following fields: art, design, architecture, film, photography, music, literature, performance, installations, hybrid media.
Emiko Ogawa
Head of Prix Ars Electronica
Emiko Ogawa (JP/AT) is a Japanese curator and artist based in Linz, Austria. Since 2013, she has been the head of the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s longest running and most prestigious media arts competition, organized by Ars Electronica. She has played a key role in Ars Electronica’s Art Thinking programs for educational institutions, companies, and governments, fostering discussions and shaping essential questions as a foundation for envisioning the future.
Emiko Ogawa is also a visiting professor at the Art Science Department, Osaka University of Arts and serves as a jury member for LINZ_media_arts 2024–2027. Her contributions to media art extend to publishing articles in outlets such as WIRED Japan and The Nikkei. Additionally, she leads the creative direction of the media art group h.o, where she develops artworks and workshop tools that encourage intuitive engagement. Her anonymous human drawing series (Marusan) is featured in numerous signages and posters, introducing the artworks in a distinctive and approachable way. ars.electronica.art/japan/en/about/emiko-ogawa
Sybilla Patrizia
Sybilla Patrizia is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photographer from Austria, based in Tokyo. In her work, she merges her passion for social impact and human stories with her background in fashion to create thought-provoking stories that cross the border between documentary, art and design.
In 2022, Sybilla filmed ‘The Dark Side of Manga’ (VICE) which won an Emmy in 2023. ‘The Shape of Blue’ was awarded Best Pitch Award at Tokyo Docs, Sunny Side of the Doc Award, and DocedgeKolkata Award. ‘A Bloody Taboo’ about the stigma against menstruation in Japan, was awarded at Tokyo Docs and premiered at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2021.
Sybilla is currently developing two feature documentaries “PLASTIC LOVE!“ which deals with Japan’s toxic love for plastic, and “The Shape of Blue,” about two indigo dyers uncovering the profound meaning of color. As a multilingual creative who has lived in 7 countries across 3 continents, Sybilla has worked with international media and brands including BBC, VICE, Financial Times, adidas, AnOther Magazine, NHK, Amazon Prime, and NETFLIX.sybillapatrizia.com
Michael Schneider
Michael W. Schneider, born in Austria, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at the Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan. Since 1990 he has worked intensively in the medium of woodblock printing. Instead of the traditional knives, he uses stones found in nature to chisel structures into the wood plates and, since his studies in Japan, waterbased substances (Indian ink, pigment, graphite) to ink the plates.
He has also been involved in non-traditional approaches to printmaking including installation, photography, performance, and sound as an extension of his printmaking practice. For his research in non-toxic and computer aided printmaking Schneider was awarded the Theodor-Körner-Award 2005. He has exhibited extensively within Europe, Turkey, Japan, Korea, China, Canada, North- and South-America. Schneider was founder and co-editor of “im:print, journal of the current state of printmaking" and staff-writer of “Um:Druck”, journal for Printmaking and Visual Culture".
In addition to his work as a freelance artist, he currently teaches as Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan, as Guest Professor at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in China and as Adjunct Professor at the Art Department of Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Schneider completed his habilitation for "Graphic Arts with an emphasis in Printmaking and Printmedia" at the University of Applied Arts in 2014. michael-schneider.info
Emiko Ogawa
Head of Prix Ars Electronica
Emiko Ogawa (JP/AT) is a Japanese curator and artist based in Linz, Austria. Since 2013, she has been the head of the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s longest running and most prestigious media arts competition, organized by Ars Electronica. She has played a key role in Ars Electronica’s Art Thinking programs for educational institutions, companies, and governments, fostering discussions and shaping essential questions as a foundation for envisioning the future.
Emiko Ogawa is also a visiting professor at the Art Science Department, Osaka University of Arts and serves as a jury member for LINZ_media_arts 2024–2027. Her contributions to media art extend to publishing articles in outlets such as WIRED Japan and The Nikkei. Additionally, she leads the creative direction of the media art group h.o, where she develops artworks and workshop tools that encourage intuitive engagement. Her anonymous human drawing series (Marusan) is featured in numerous signages and posters, introducing the artworks in a distinctive and approachable way.https://ars.electronica.art/
japan/en/about/emiko-ogawa/
Sybilla Patrizia
Sybilla Patrizia is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photographer from Austria, based in Tokyo. In her work, she merges her passion for social impact and human stories with her background in fashion to create thought-provoking stories that cross the border between documentary, art and design.
In 2022, Sybilla filmed ‘The Dark Side of Manga’ (VICE) which won an Emmy in 2023. ‘The Shape of Blue’ was awarded Best Pitch Award at Tokyo Docs, Sunny Side of the Doc Award, and DocedgeKolkata Award. ‘A Bloody Taboo’ about the stigma against menstruation in Japan, was awarded at Tokyo Docs and premiered at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2021.
Sybilla is currently developing two feature documentaries “PLASTIC LOVE!“ which deals with Japan’s toxic love for plastic, and “The Shape of Blue,” about two indigo dyers uncovering the profound meaning of color. As a multilingual creative who has lived in 7 countries across 3 continents, Sybilla has worked with international media and brands including BBC, VICE, Financial Times, adidas, AnOther Magazine, NHK, Amazon Prime, and NETFLIX.
sybillapatrizia.com/
Michael Schneider
Michael W. Schneider, born in Austria, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at the Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan. Since 1990 he has worked intensively in the medium of woodblock printing. Instead of the traditional knives, he uses stones found in nature to chisel structures into the wood plates and, since his studies in Japan, waterbased substances (Indian ink, pigment, graphite) to ink the plates.
He has also been involved in non-traditional approaches to printmaking including installation, photography, performance, and sound as an extension of his printmaking practice. For his research in non-toxic and computer aided printmaking Schneider was awarded the Theodor-Körner-Award 2005. He has exhibited extensively within Europe, Turkey, Japan, Korea, China, Canada, North- and South-America. Schneider was founder and co-editor of “im:print, journal of the current state of printmaking" and staff-writer of “Um:Druck”, journal for Printmaking and Visual Culture".
In addition to his work as a freelance artist, he currently teaches as Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan, as Guest Professor at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in China and as Adjunct Professor at the Art Department of Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Schneider completed his habilitation for "Graphic Arts with an emphasis in Printmaking and Printmedia" at the University of Applied Arts in 2014.
michael-schneider.info
The Austrian Cultural Forum (ACF) Tokyo is part of Austria’s international cultural network committed to shaping an active international cultural policy as defined in the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s International Cultural Policy Concept.
The ACF Tokyo acts as a platform for artists from Austria in Japan and supports initiatives to present a unique image of a contemporary, innovative and creative Austria. The ACF Tokyo is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Born in Vienna in 1923, Beate Sirota Gordon spent her childhood in Tokyo as the daughter of famed pianist and music professor Leo Sirota and his wife Augustine.
After completing her college degree in California, Beate Sirota Gordon traveled back to Japan in 1945 as a translation expert for the U.S. military, where, aged just 22, she was invited to be part of General Douglas MacArthur’s secret mission to help draft the new Japanese constitution after World War II.
After completing her college degree in California, Beate Sirota Gordon traveled back to Japan in 1945 as a translation expert for the U.S. military, where, aged just 22, she was invited to be part of General Douglas MacArthur’s secret mission to help draft the new Japanese constitution after World War II.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after the award ceremony in spring 2023.
Her legacy was enshrined as one of the authors of Articles 14 and 24, which provided unprecedented rights to women in marriage, divorce, property, and inheritance, laying the foundation for further women’s rights movements and making Ms. Sirota Gordon a feminist heroine in modern-day Japan.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after the award ceremony in spring 2023.
Beate Sirota Gordon later joined the Japan Society and Asia Society in New York City, where she supported the careers of many emerging, and often female artists from Asia over the following decades. Articles 14 and 24 of the Japanese constitution, which Ms. Sirota Gordon helped draft, are still in force today.
In the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Manga “From Vienna To Tokyo” embarks on a journey alongside Beate, to experience the heroic story of a girl born into a Jewish family in Vienna, finding her new home in Japan, before losing contact to her parents during World War II and eventually becoming one of Japan’s most celebrated feminist heroines.
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Director: Arno Mitterdorfer
Assistant: Akiko Soga
Logo Design:Ginko Yang
Website Design:Namuun Davaadorj
Archival photographs courtesy of:
The American School in Japan
Women’s Archives Center,
National Women’s Education Center of Japan
Beate Sirota Gordon Photo Gallery (online),
with permission from the Gordon family
© 2024 Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo
