Baloise Prize awarded at Basel to Simon Fujiwara and Claire Hooper

The twelfth Baloise Prize has been awarded at Art Basel to artists Simon Fujiwara and Claire Hooper. The annual prizes, awarded at the fair, this year comprises of two awards of CHF 30,000 to two artists participating in the Art Statements section of the fair.

Claire Hooper exhibited a film NYX (2010) showing a night-time descent into the underground system of a metropolis. The homeward journey of a youngster turns into a horror trip through the disastrous combination of alcohol and drug intolerance. Fujiwara exhibited Welcome to the Hotel Munber (2010), in which he staged the life of his parents during the Franco era. Diverse allusions to the brutal sexual oppression of that regime are played out behind the deceptively harmless façade of a Spanish bar.

The jury comprised of Ziba Ardalan de Weck, Director, Parasol unit, foundation for contemporary art, London; Petra Roettig, Curator, Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Chris Dercon, Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Edelbert Köb, Director, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna and Martin Schwander, Fine Art Advisor of the Baloise, Chairman of the jury.