Artes Mundi announce the shortlist for its eighth edition, including five internationally celebrated artists

Date
12 September 2017
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Otobong Nkanga

Artes Mundi have announced the shortlisted artists for the eighth edition of its exhibition and prize. The internationally focused arts organisation “recognises and supports contemporary visual artists who engage with the human condition, social reality and lived experience”. The shortlisted was selected from 450 nominations from 86 countries.

The five shortlisted artists include Canadian/Egyptian artist Anna Boghiguian whose work “offers a unique third person yet omniscient view of modern urban communities,” says the organisation. Recent work by Anna was included in the exhibition Unfurnished Conversations: New Work from the Collection at MoMA, New York.

The second nominated artist is Bouchra Khalili, a Moroccan-French artist who works in Berlin and Oslo. Her work uses the mediums of film, video, installation, photography and print articulating “language, subjectivity, orality and geographical explorations,” Artes Mundi explain.

Next is Otobong Nkanga a visual artist who studied at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-lfe, Nigeria, before studying at École Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. “Otobong Nkanga’s drawings, installations, photographs and sculptures variously examine ideas around land and the value connected to natural resources,” through multiple mediums from painting to video.

Also nominated is American Trevor Paglen, another multi-displinary artist whose work spans sculpture, investigative journalism, writing and engineering, “learning how to see the historical moment we live in and developing the means to imagine alternative futures”. The artist’s work has been displayed in group exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.

The final artist on the shortlistis Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a Thai artist whose film and installation work is “often non-linear, with a strong sense of dislocation”. The artist has separated himself from the commercial film industry in Thailand, “promoting experimental and independent film-making through his company Kick the Machine”.

On this years shortlisted artists curator and director of the organisation, Karen MacKinnon says: “Artes Mundi’s unique focus on the human condition enables us to bring together artists from all over the world whose art can inspire and challenge the way we see and inhabit our world…The ebb and flow of their ideas, the different perspectives and terms of engagement suggest we are in for an extraordinary Artes Mundi 8.

Artes Mundi was founded in 2002 by the Welsh artist William Wilkins and its exhibition will take place at the National Museum Cardiff between 26 October 2018 – 24 February 2019, the winner will be annoucned on 24th January 2019. The winning artist will be awarded a £40,000 prize, the larges art prize available in the UK.

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Anna Boghiguian

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Bouchra Khalili

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Apichatpong Weerasethakul

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Trevor Paglen

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Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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