January 25, 2019
Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been chosen from a shortlist of five of some of the world’s leading artists to win the UK’s largest prize for international contemporary art, Artes Mundi 8.
Welsh Music Prize nominated artist Gwenno announced Weerasethakul as the winner of the bi-annual award, with a prize sum of 40,000 GBP, at a ceremony held at the National Museum Cardiff.
Weerasethakul said: "This is a special day and I feel very honoured. I was already grateful to be shortlisted in the company of such inspiring and impressive artists, but to be named winner is quite a surprise. My practice is very personal and I am very grateful that through the platform of Artes Mundi my work can reach and inspire many people across the world. Winning a prize like this encourages me to continue my work and to continue to ask more questions about the world that we all share. Artes Mundi reminds us that it’s important that artists are given the freedom to express the social and political conditions that we are living in.
In Thailand propaganda is everywhere in various forms, so there is this fluidity of truths floating around, forming and shattering your identity. Art is the practice to discover one’s own voice and to be able to speak honestly and truthfully. Truth in art fosters empathy and in the world we are living in we need more empathy as well as art that communicates real truths.
I worked in the medium of film first because it was an escape, but then I discovered that it can be subversive. It is a language that can move beyond criticism and has the ability to mirror suffering fear and hope. Film creates another layer of identity that counters the other seemingly fixed narratives in our world."
Karen Mackinnon, Director and Curator, Artes Mundi said, “We are delighted to announce Apichatpong Weerasethakul as the winner of Artes Mundi 8. In these turbulent times, art that engages with pertinent social concerns offers meaning to our lives; it can challenge, teach and console. All of the shortlisted artists have produced outstanding work for the Artes Mundi 8 exhibition at National Museum Cardiff.
This year’s judges chose Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his unique approach to his gallery installations in which he interrogates film and cinema as an expanded artistic and cultural practice. Through his work, he creates liminal spaces in which imagination is a radical strategy of resistance. These multifaceted works are as much about the vastness of human imagination as they are about political oppression and personal freedom. Congratulations Apichatpong!”
In a shared statement, the Artes Mundi 8 jury said, "The judges were presented with an unenviable task given the superb shortlist of artists, whose previous decade of work, as well as that on show at National Museum Cardiff, was of extraordinary quality. The jury was taken by the coherence of the work together as well as their individual strengths.
"When times are tough it is sometimes not safe to talk about politics explicitly and Apichatpong Weerasethakul provides us with some subtle tools of resistance: the methodology of camouflage demonstrated in Invisibility is a powerful weapon in these turbulent times. While in the west Weerasethakul is better known as a feature film director, the jury wished to pay homage to the vigorous interrogation in his gallery work of filmmaking, storytelling and the political and social position of the artist."
The Artes Mundi 8 jury are: Oliver Basciano, Chair of the Jury and International Editor at ArtReview; Katoaka Mami, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Laura Raicovich, independent curator based in New York City; and Anthony Shapland, Creative Director, g39, Cardiff.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's winning piece, alongside the other shortlisted works, is on display at National Museum Cardiff until February 24.
