Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol, the winning artists, were invited by Hou Hanru. Hanru (born in 1963 in China) is a prolific and dynamic critic and curator based in Paris and San Francisco. He is Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and also Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. Described as a significant international voice on cultural difference, Hou is a regular contributor to several other journals on contemporary art and publications. He has been a consultant for several cultural institutions internationally.

The duo Bik Van der Pol wins Enel Contemporanea Award 2010.

The project Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling? brings the natural elements together in an architectural model loosely based on the design of the icon of modernism, the Farnsworth house. This model will function as a temporary home for butterflies, as the ultimate agents for idealist ideas of transformation, change and recycling. Nature becomes spectacle, a spectacle inside the confinements of the museum wall. The energy used for this project obviously should be ‘green’.

The Enel Contemporanea Award 2010 winning project will be announced on March 9th, 2010. The project will be displayed at the MACRO in Autumn 2010.

Franca Sozzani is one of the judges who have been selected on the basis of their outstanding and innovative contribution to cultural and artistic enrichment.

Franca Sozzani started her career at Condé Nast working for Vogue Bambini magazine. In 1980 she became the editor of Lei, a completely new Italian magazine based on the formula of the American Glamour. In 1988 she became the editor of Vogue Italia. She completely revamped the magazine to make it the world’s trendiest Vogue edition. Since 1994 she is also editorial head of Condé Nast Italia; she supervises all the magazines published by the Italian division of the U.S. publishing house. She has worked with many artists, such as Vanessa Beecroft and Maurizio Cattelan. In 2000 she turned her hand to exhibition curation.