Art Review

Art review

The New Generation Art Prize, established by Victor Pinchuk and the Pinchuk Foundation, announced on Friday evening that 36 year-old Cinthea Marcelle, a Brazillian artist, was the winner of the main $100,000 prize, whilst a special prize of $20,000 was given to Nicolae Mircea. Marcelle's work, on show in the exhibition of the 21 shortlisted artists, featured videos of performative actions involving the landscape.

In 475 Volver (2009), for example, a bulldozer drives around and around in a loop, creating the infinity symbol, moving earth from one side of the loop to another. In another, Fonte 193 (2007) a fire engine drives around in a circle, spraying water from its hoses into the centre of the circle continuously. Of the award money, $40,000 must be spent on the creation of new work, whilst the artist is free to do as they wish with the remainder. Marcelle, who has recently had a baby, announced that she would be using the prize money to experiment, and that it would give her some time to plan new projects. Nicolae Mircea showed an installation and video that comprised a project entitled Romanian Kiosk Company, creating a history of the architecture of kiosks for street vendors alongside the relationship to other architectural styles that emerged in relation to the politics in his home city of Bucharest.

The winner of the Main Prize was selected and announced by the international jury consisting of Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden), Okwui Enwezor (Nigeria), Yuko Hasegawa (Japan), Ivo Mesquita (Brazil), Eckhard Schneider (Germany), Robert Storr (USA) and Ai Weiwei, (China), who had to contribute via video conferencing, due to the fact that he was being held by Chinese authorites to stop him from attending the Nobel Prize ceremony. The award ceremony, held in Kiev, Ukraine, was attended by international museum directors from across the globe, as well as the prize's mentor artists Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Koons. Murakami's...