Eye Art & Film Prize

The Eye Art & Film Prize is awarded every year to a filmmaker who brings together art and film in an innovative, inspiring and highly artistic way. In its upcoming exhibition, Eye presents the work of three recent winners: Meriem Bennani, Kahlil Joseph and the Karrabing Film Collective. What is notable about the work of these artists is their committed engagement with the world and the ease with which they effortlessly cross the boundaries between cinema, documentary and visual art. 

Meriem Bennani won the prize in 2019 for her playful, slightly disruptive and innovative shorts and installations. Born in Rabat in 1988, she immerses visitors in a world populated by a cast of motley characters (including a talking crocodile called Fiona) who broach difficult subjects in a light-footed manner, among them identity, migration, neo-colonialism and biotechnology. North African culture is always present in her work. Her films call to mind documentaries—but as you’ve never seen them before. Influenced by internet culture, Bennani blends film footage, 3D animations and special effects.

In 2020 the Eye Art & Film Prize went to Kahlil Joseph, who crosses the boundaries between cinema, visual art, journalism, cultural criticism and pop music in his work. Born in Seattle in 1981, he rose to fame directing pioneering video clips for such artists as Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and FKA twigs. He then broadened his scope to include large-scale video installations in which he explores, presents and celebrates Black culture in the United States. With his work he criticizes stereotypes and unravels the power structures of the mainstream media. In the process, he steers clear of clichés and provides a platform for images that are seldom seen. Joseph comments on politics in a refined visual style: seductive, even hypnotic.

The 2021 winner was the Karrabing Film Collective, an artist group of primarily Indigenous groups from the northwest coastal region of the Northern Territory of Australia. In their films and installations they develop an artistic language all of their own to tell stories about their continuing refusal to give way to the destructive impact of centuries of colonialism and oppression. The collective counters inequality, environmental pollution and structural poverty by together making films that expand their ancestral knowledge, culture and kinship with the land. Through these films the members—the number now totals 30—take back control of their own history and future by focusing on an ancestral present now populated by zombies, mermaids, ancestral spirits, insufferable bureaucrats and more. 

Films, talks and events 
The exhibition is accompanied a programme of film screenings and conversations, compiled in collaboration with the artists. For details, please see eyefilm.nl/eyeprize.

About the Eye Art & Film Prize
The Eye Art & Film Prize was established in 2015 by Eye and the Paddy and Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund. The annual prize of 25,000 pounds sterling given by the PJLF Arts Fund enables the winner to create new work. Previous winners were Hito Steyerl (2015), Ben Rivers (2016), Wang Bing (2017) and Francis Alÿs (2018). The jury currently consists of Chris Dercon, Nanouk Leopold, Nalini Malani, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Hila Peleg and Sandra den Hamer (chairperson). The advisory board is made up of Hoor Al Qasimi, Solange Farkas, Simon Field, Andrea Lissoni, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Rajendra Roy, Eva Sangiorgi and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and is chaired by Jaap Guldemond in collaboration with Marente Bloemheuvel.

PJLF Arts Fund
The PJLF Arts Fund was set up in 2011 to support artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians. Celebrated author Paddy Leigh Fermor (1915–2011) and photographer Joan Leigh Fermor (1911–2003) were keenly interested and involved in the arts. The Paddy Leigh Fermor Archive and the Joan Leigh Fermor Archive are housed at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.