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John Skoog has been awarded the 2014 Baloise Art Prize at this year’s Art Basel: Statements.
The Baloise Art Prize is presented annually at the Statements sector of Art Basel to two young artists, selected by a renowned jury. For this year’s prize, Skoog is the sole recipient. He received the award for his installation on show at Pilar Corrias’ booth. The installation comprises Reduit (Redoubt) (2014), filmed at a derelict Swedish bunker he has visited since childhood, alongside three large-format scanned photographs of its dilapidated walls and a found image appropriated from the site. Skoog’s work follows in the tradition of Scandinavian film, taking inspiration from stark landscapes, slow pacing, and poetic studies of character and emotion.
In addition to the CHF 30,000 prize, the Baloise Group will acquire a group of works by Skoog to be donated to two leading European museums, the MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, and the MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna.
The 2014 jury consists of Karola Kraus (Director, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna); Susanne Gaensheimer (Director, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt); Dirk Snauwaert, (Artistic Director, WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels); and Martin Schwander (Fine Art Advisor of the Baloise, Chairman of the jury).
