Among the five groups committed to social change that competed this year for the Turner Prize, the most important British distinction in the field of visual arts, the jury selected a group of 11 artists from Belfast who have been working on topics such as abortion and rights anomalyMental health, modernization and access to social protection, but also the Irish cause. 25,000 pounds (29,300 euros) from the 2021 edition of this award will go to the Array Collective, marking an art practice conducted “in the difficult, divided and sectarian context of today’s society,” said the jury chairperson. , Alex Farquharson, citing the diary Watchman.
“They deal with very important issues, but they bring humor, pleasure, joy, hope and hospitality – often through absurdity. camp and the theater — to a very tense situation, added the director of Tate Britain, stressing the “libertarian and post-sectarian” spirit of the groupthink, but also the lightness and “carnival feel” with which they approach fractured issues such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and women’s rights .
The installation for which Array Collective won the award, drothep ball, repeats one pub The illegal Irish, while invoking the ceremonial structures characteristic of Celtic culture and signs of protest culture such as the flags and banners used in demonstrations, in this case defends the reproductive rights of the non-heterosexual population and condemns conversion therapies. The group, which has been hit hard by the struggles for independence in Northern Ireland, describes it as “a place for us to come together beyond communal barriers”. The suggestion is that politics can and should take place in the street, but in a way that is “more fun and less combative”, as critic David Sillito points out on the BBC.
“In a society where protest marches and street art are often charged with sectarian meanings, the Matrixes want to create new events and new symbols, and undermine local myths in order to respond to different identities across the usual dividing lines,” the BBC says. journalist.
Deeming the award to be “surreal”, which has not yet gone to Northern Ireland, the group has already stated that it intends to use the money to secure the rental of its Belfast studio.
The Black Obsidian Sound System (BOSS) and London cooking divisions – the first made up of non-white people – also competed for the award. anomaly, transgender and intersex people, committed to redefining the culture Sound system of the African diaspora; The second focused on the way food reveals the unsustainable dynamics of extraction and consumption – The Gentle/Radical Project, from Cardiff, which uses art as a tool for social change, and Project Art Works Group, based in Hastings. And each of the final projects received ten thousand pounds.
restriction decision Shortlist this year For artists working collaboratively and collectively it was a controversial issue, but Alex Farquharson recalls that in other disciplines, such as theater, film, or performance, this is a common practice.
Last year, due to the pandemic crisis, the Turner Prize was suspended for the first time since its inception in 1984, But instead, ten thousand euros were awarded to ten artists. In 2019, the jury selected, by an unprecedented decision, and at their request, To award a prize to four finalists.
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