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The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève is proud to announce Lucia Martinez Garcia as the recipient of the inaugural Swiss Moving Image Award for her film Dihya (2020).
Launched earlier this year, the Swiss Moving Image Award recognizes an outstanding young Swiss artist or artist working in Switzerland in the area of video art and moving images. The 2021 prize marks the culmination of the program Almusibli Panorama— in which Dihya was presented—curated by Mohamed Almusibli for the 5th floor, the digital platform of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.
The six-member jury for the 2021 Swiss Moving Image Award consisted of Andrea Bellini, director of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève; art collector Haro Cumbusyan; writer Olamiju Fajemisin; Andrea Lissoni, director of Haus der Kunst in Munich; Lisa Long, curator at the Julia Stoschek Collection in Berlin and Düsseldorf; and Deborah Joyce Holman, artist and associate curator of Auto Italia in London.
The jury as a whole appreciated not only the sensitivity with which Lucia Martinez Garcia addresses such important topics as homophobia and transphobia in her film, but also—and above all—the great formal maturity of her work. In a collective statement, the jury wrote: “The intimate, deeply touching portrait of the artist’s sister, Mia, leaves viewers with an intense and unforgettable atmosphere. The jury sees real talent and extraordinary potential in the work of this young artist. It hopes that the prize of 10,000 Swiss francs, by contributing to the production of a new work, will immediately put her in a position to devote herself to ambitious projects.”
To mark this occasion, a retrospective of Lucia Martinez Garcia’s work will be presented on the 5th floor until September 30, 2021. Visit the retrospective here.
A panorama of the Swiss artistic landscape
The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève launched the 5th floor in November 2018. As a continuation of the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, the 5th floor serves as both a production and broadcasting platform for moving image works.
An annual curatorial program linked to the Swiss Moving Image Awards aims to draw a panorama of the territories and forms emerging from the Swiss art scene in all its diversity. It is led by a different young curator each year.
The Centre is pleased to announce that it has entrusted Lhaga Namlha Koondhor with curating the next edition. Koondhor Panorama will start in 2022.