Turner Prize exhibition aims to get us talking
A BLANK gallery where people discuss the economy and a huge naked humanoid figure are to battle it out for the UK’s bestknown art award: the Turner Prize.
They line up against a film about an elderly man who tried to dig a tunnel from Cumbria to Africa and a series of large-scale portraits of fictional figures, as the strange mix of artworks by the shortlisted artists were unveiled in an exhibition to showcase their expertise.
The exhibition, which has travelled outside England for the first time, is being staged on the site of a former military barracks at Ebrington in Derry, Northern Ireland. Housed inside a newly converted soldiers’ dormitory once hidden behind miles of bulletproof corrugated iron and barbed wire, the show will run until 5 January.
Penelope Curtis, director of Tate Britain, said: “We are delighted to be staging Turner Prize 2013 at Derry/ Londonderry. This year’s shortlist showcases artists whose work spans live encounters, film, sculpture, drawing and painting.
“Visitors to the exhibition at Ebrington will gain a good sense of the diversity of British art. The prize provides a vital part of Tate’s aim to encourage a wider understanding and enjoyment of visual art.”
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Derry on 2 December.
Among the best-known artists in the running for the £25,000 prize money is Berlinbased Tino Sehgal, 37, whose work T his is Exchange consists of live “encounters” between interpreters dressed in black T-shirts and the audience. There are no actual objects or displays on show.
Visitors enter the white gallery and can earn £2 if they choose to engage in a meaningful conversation about the market economy.
Sehgal’s nomination is the first time that a live, partially structured exhibition has been included in the shortlist.
The bookmakers’ favourite to win is Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley whose piece Life Model features a larger-thanlife naked male robot. Showgoers are encouraged to take part by drawing the model, and their efforts are displayed around the gallery.
Shrigley said: “The drawings are part of the artwork. The idea is that people can take a bit of the artwork away. I hope they enjoy trying to figure out what it’s about.
“All the drawings seem to have merit regardless of whether they are really objectively well rendered or whether they are crude and quite primitive or sarcastic.”
Life Model was shown in Manchester last year.
He added: “It’s interesting, because most people seem to have signed their drawing rather conspicuously. That didn’t happen when I showed it in Manchester.”
The other nominees are Laure Prouvost and Lynette Yiadom Boakye.
Established in 1984, the Turner Prize is awarded to an artist under 50, living, working or born in Britain, who is judged to have put on the best exhibition of the past 12 months. Winners include Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.