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Sorry for suffering?You think I'm a puppy on a picnic?, 1990.
12-day performance, Kimpo Airport, Narita Airport, downtown Tokyo, Dokiwaza Theater, Tokyo.
Courtesy: Studio Lee Bul.
The results of the 2014 NOON Art Prize were announced at the opening ceremony of the 10th Gwangju Biennale on Septemer 4. Lee Bul won in the top Established Artist category and Cecilia Bengolea & Francois Chaignaud were awarded in the Emerging Artist section. Tetsuya Ishida won the Posthumous Award, which was added to the event this year in commemoration of the biennale’s 10th edition.
The NOON Art Prize, selected from each biennale edition’s list of participating artists, seeks to recognize those who reflect the values of the Gwangju spirit on which the biennale was established. In addition, this year’s winners were selected for their engagement with the theme, Burning Down the House, and experimental vision.
The Established prize is judged on the artist’s contribution to the development of the contemporary art world and is accompanied with a cash prize of US$10,000. The Emerging prize is given to those believed to have the most exciting potential and comes with a cash prize of US$5,000.
Lee was selected for her early video works from the late 1980s and early 1990s. In one of the highly experimental pieces, the artist gives a monologue while hanging from a torturous angle. "The early works of Lee Bul, who denounces suppression and discrimination against women within a male-dominated society while challenging the norms of visual culture, have left a lingering imagery and conveyed a powerful message," said Hong-Hee Kim, director of the Seoul Museum of Art and a member of the judging panel.
Other members were Jean de Loisy, Okwui Enwezor, Bartomeu Mari, and Wong Shun-Kit.
Bengolea and Chaignaud were recognized for their performance piece Sylphides (2009), in which dancers perform as sylphs, mythological spirits of the air. The work explores themes of dualism, linear time, rationalism and death. Ishida’s paintings reflect the psychological malaise of growing up in Japan’s “lost decade” of economic turmoil, conveying isolation and anxiety by portraying young people as physically connected with consumer objects.