The Artes Mundi 3 Prize (2008) was awarded to the
Indian artist N S Harsha.
“The panel of judges acknowledged the work of all the artists and found coming to a decision extremely challenging” said Jack Persekian. “We based our decision on the artists’ work over the last 5-8 years and were particularly interested in work that added to our understanding of humanity and the human condition.
In awarding the prize to N S Harsha, the panel were impressed by the scope of his work and its range and variety of approach, from painting and installation to community activities. Basing his work upon his locality, cultural traditions and the shifting world of today, Harsha engages and connects with an ever broadening public. The panel stressed the strength of the exhibition at National Museum Cardiff and admired the outstanding presentations by each of the shortlisted artists.
The Artes Mundi 2 Prize (2006) was awarded to the Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila.
Imagine standing between three huge video screens. For thirteen and a half minutes you are immersed in a world that is partly like your own, enough to fool you into considering what you see as possible – and partly radically different – enough to make you feel uneasy. The predominant colour is green. No music accompanies the single, female voice, which speaks without any evident emotion.
© Mieke Bal - writing for Artes Mundi 2 publication
The Artes Mundi 1 Prize (2004) was awarded to the Chinese artist Xu Bing.
Hauntingly simple, Xu Bing’s installation Where does the dust itself collect
? (2004) at Artes Mundi 1 brought together formal and thematic concerns that have informed his conceptually-based work for nearly twenty years. Viewers look down from an elevated catwalk onto a gallery floor strewn with white dust and punctuated by barren areas ‘printed’ with large Chinese characters forming two lines of verse “As there is nothing from the first / Where does the dust itself collect
?” by the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, Hiu-neng (638-713). On a wall hang five photographs, sequentially documenting the process by which this dust from the World Trade Center collapse was originally gathered, cast into a doll-shaped statuette for transport through customs, then broken into fragments and ground to powder again in Cardiff. History, technical skill and inventiveness, sly humour, transgression of borders, language play, the problem of spiritual fulfilment in contemporary secular circumstances – all are elements of Xu Bing’s work.
© Richard Vine - writing for Artes Mundi 2 publication