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Sheba Chhachhi Named Winner of 2nd Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award
SHEBA CHHACHHI is the winner of the 2nd Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award. Courtesy the artist.
Indian artist Sheba Chhachhi has been announced as the recipient of this year’s Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award. The artist is the winning candidate among eight finalists from seven countries.
New Delhi-based Chhachhi is active in a gamut of mediums. Her first works, created in the 1980s, are photographs that document the women’s rights movement in India. Later, she produced documentary films and created installation art as well. The themes of her recent multimedia installation works include ecology, gender and urban transformations. Chhachhi’s creations have been exhibited worldwide and frequently appear on the biennial circuit—Gwangju in 2012, Moscow in 2009, Singapore in 2006 and Havana in 2000. Her artworks are part of the Tate’s collection in the United Kingdom.
The Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award, now in its second edition, was set up by Swiss artist George Steinmann. With an annual cash prize of CHF 25,000 (USD 25,700), the award is also an art project, originally initiated in the context of Steinmann’s 2014 solo exhibition, “Call and Response. A Dialogue with George Steinmann,” at Kunstmuseum Thun. In an email to ArtAsiaPacific, Steinmann said, “The idea is to support artists who are committed to a sustainable, viable future with a special focus on ecology and environmental issues.”
Other than Steinmann, this year’s jury includes Jürg Neuenschwander, a film director and producer based in Bern and Paris; Peter Schneemann, professor at the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern; Jean Ziegler, a professor and sociologist based in Geneva; Helen Hirsch, director of Kunstmuseum Thun; and Marianne Flubacher, head of Thun’s cultural department. The prize will be officially presented to Chhachhi on August 25, 2017, in Thun, Switzerland, where Steinmann grew up.
The winner of the inaugural 2016 edition of the award is Oliver Ressler, an Austrian artist and filmmaker.
SHEBA CHHACHHI, Record/Resist: Second Wave, 2012, 21 black-and-white digital archival prints, looped video: 9 min. Courtesy the artist and Volte Gallery, Mumbai.
Crystal Wu is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
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