2017: Nigerian wins the BelgianArtPrize

A Nigerian, Otobong Nkanga has won the most important and historic award for contemporary art in Belgium.  According to a report on the website, bozar.be, the artist’s works on transformation processes referring to changes in our society gave her an edge over other contestants.  The report said, “Alongside the BelgianArtPrize exhibition in Brussels, Otobong Nkanga’s […]

A Nigerian, Otobong Nkanga has won the most important and historic award for contemporary art in Belgium. 

According to a report on the website, bozar.be, the artist’s works on transformation processes referring to changes in our society gave her an edge over other contestants. 

The report said, “Alongside the BelgianArtPrize exhibition in Brussels, Otobong Nkanga’s work is currently also on view at Contour in Mechelen and Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens.” 

Nkanga, according to the piece, was pronounced the winner of the BelgianArtPrize 2017 at the official awards ceremony in BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts on April 19. 

It also said, “The biennial art prize focuses on stimulating leading mid-career artists and contributing to their further career development through increased international visibility. In that respect the prize is similar to other European prizes such as the Turner Prize in the United Kingdom, the Prix Marcel Duchamp in France and the Prix de Rome in the Netherlands.

“The winner was chosen from the four finalists (Edith Dekyndt, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Otobong Nkanga and Maarten Vanden Eynde, who was awarded the ING Public Prize  following a public voting) by a distinguished international jury consisting of Beatrix Ruf (Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London) and Dieter Roelstraete (Co-curator of Documenta 14), art collector Mimi Dusselier (who has been involved in visual arts for the past 30 years) and Estelle Francès Lasserre (Director of the Fondation d’Entreprise Francès).” 

The artist was awarded the prize in recognition of her extraordinary and complex artistic practice. 

“Nkanga,” the report said, “is an artist who records the social and topographical changes of her environment, who observes their inherent complexities and understands how resources such as soil and earth, and their potential values, are subject to regional and cultural analysis. 

“Her work invites the spectator to enter into a dialogue about the intangibility of identity, memory and perception and to observe how these parameters change when presented within a specific composition and recitation through language. The jury sees Otobong Nkanga’s contribution to the international art scene through her installations as extremely valuable.

“The jury applauded the commitment of the four nominated artists and praised the quality of their diverse artistic practices. The finalists translated both local and international cultural histories into strong works with powerful immediacy that evoke the social and political commitment of each of the nominees. The poetic and enigmatic character of each proposition reflects the complexities and challenges of today’s world.”