Anri Sala wins Vincent Award for contemporary art


French-Albanian artist tops shortlist of five artists including Britain's Gillian Wearing to win prize for 'mid-career artists'.


French-Albanian artist Anri Sala, whose work includes a self-playing drum and video work sound tracked by renditions of the Clash's 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' has won this year's Vincent Award, which celebrates contemporary art by 'mid-career artists'.

Anri Sala_Vincent Award

Anri Sala

The award was announced at an award ceremony at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (Netherlands).

Sala was one of five artists nominated for the prize; the others were Pierre Huyghe, Manfred Pernice, Willem de Rooij and Gillian Wearing.

Clash_Tlatelolco_Anri Sala

A still from Clash Tlatelolco by Anri Sala

Each of the five shortlisted artists created new work for the exhibition, which they are exhibiting alongside existing work.

Sala will receive € 50,000 in prize money. The work he created for the Vincent Award 2014 exhibition will be on display at The Hague's GEM Museum of Contemporary Art until 2 February 2015.

Manfred Pernice

Plateau_Cassette (Fontainebleau) Manfred Pernice

Born in 1974 in Tirana, Albania, Sala often explores turning points in history through his artwork, which includes video installations and sculpture.

According to the Gemeentemuseum, Sala 'sees such moments as providing the scope for new opportunities. Sala's early works refer to his personal experience of social and political change in Albania following the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991. History, memory and change continue to be recurrent themes in his more recent work.'

Bully_Gillian_Wearing_Vincent Award 2014

'Bully', by Gillian Wearing

For the Vincent Award 2014, Sala combined three works to create a single installation. His films 'Le Clash' and 'Tlatelolco Clash' features a derelict Modernist arts venue and spots in the vicinity of the Plaza of Three Cultures in Tlatelolco (Mexico City) - places the artists sees as symbolising the failure of a 'Great Ideology'.

Clash Tlatelolco_Vincent Award_Anri Sala

A still from Clash Tlatelolco by Anri Sala

Benno Tempel, chairman of the international jury, said: 'Sala succeeded the best in creating an installation where the viewer is constantly challenged by image, sound and movement. It is a poetic and at the same time conceptual work. He presents the idea of gone ideologies and the possibilities this creates for the future on an individual level.'

Established in 2000 and awarded biennially, the Vincent Award exists 'to spur on a mid-career artist whose work is having a major influence on the development of contemporary art'. Previous winners are Deimantas Narkevicius, Wilhelm Sasnal, Pawel Althamer, Neo Rauch and Eija-Liisa Ahtila.








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