Five collectives are finalists for the 2021 Turner Prize
This year, the exhibition of the works of the finalists to the competition will be presented at the Herbert Art Museum and Gallery, in Coventry, United Kingdom, from September 29, 2021 to January 12, 2022, as part of the celebrations of the City of Culture 2021 event.
The winner will be announced on December 1, 2021 at Coventry Cathedral.
The prize, one of the most important distinctions in contemporary art, thus returns to its traditional format, after, in the 2020 edition, it was transformed into support grants for ten artists, due to the context of the pandemic of covid-19 and its impact on the creation of contemporary art.
The Turner Prize for the Visual Arts was created in 1984 under the name of the painter William Turner (1775-1851) and is awarded annually to artists born or residing in the United Kingdom, based on work done in the previous year.
The Array Collective is a group of artists based in Belfast that creates works focusing on issues affecting Northern Ireland, translating them into performances, protests, exhibitions and other events. Specifically, she has worked on issues such as the decriminalization of abortion and discrimination against the homosexual community.
For their part, the Black Obsidian Sound Sistem (B.O.S.S.), based in London, are formed by black and colored artists, ‘queer’, ‘trans’ and intersex. In their work, they seek to challenge the prevailing norms among sound systems in African communities in the Diaspora, through installations, performances, workshops and creative commissions.
Cooking Sections, a London-based duo, examines food systems and organizations around the world, in a work of artistic reflection expressed in installations, performances and video that explores the boundaries between art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics. Recent work on salmon production was exhibited at Tate Britain in 2020.
Cardiff’s Gentle/Radical group, led by artists, community workers, performers and writers, argues that art is an instrument of social change and creates real and virtual spaces in Wales communities.
The Doorstep Revolution project, inspired by confinement, is one of the ongoing ones, for sharing stories between neighbors about the difficulties in dealing with the pandemic.
As for the Project Art Works collective, it includes a wide range of artists based in the city of Hastings, where it develops collaborative projects with minorities and disseminates its work through exhibitions, events, films and digital platforms.
Among the various projects, they created the film “Illuminating the Wilderness” (2019), which follows the experiences of members of the collective and their families.
The Turner Prize will award the winner 25,000 pounds sterling (~ 29,000 euros) and 10,000 pounds (11,500 euros) for each of the other finalists.
Aaron Cezar, director of the Delfina Foundation, Kim McAleese, Grand Union programmer, Russell Tovey, actor, and Zoé Whitley, director of the Chisenhale Gallery, are on the jury chaired by Alex Farquharson.
