This year’s Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious art award, has gone to a French-born artist.
Laure Prouvost was the rank outsider from a particularly strong shortlist that included higher-profile artists.
She was clearly taken aback by the announcement:
“Oh my God! I am not ready. I didn’t expect this at all. There are four incredible artists here with me in the show! I am not ready. I thought it can’t be me, I was sure it was not me. So, thank you everybody, everyone.
“Thank you to everybody that made it happen, this was an incredible project. I grew, we have had to create stories where fiction and reality get lost. I hope my granddad is hearing us now, maybe down there in the tunnel, there might be waves. “
Prouvost’s winning work includes a 15-minute film allegedly featuring a tour of the sculpture studio of her late grandfather, also a conceptual artist, who in her fictional world dug a tunnel to Africa from his living room floor.
“It means there are no more barriers, we are all the same. And it is about inventing (...)... we are all creating and people are viewing from wherever you are, we are all together.”
Prouvost is known for films and installations with complex story lines and sometimes surreal interruptions, images and choppy editing.
Established in 1984, the Turner Prize celebrates new developments in contemporary art and is handed out to an artist under the age of 50.
