Assemble, the artist collective that works with local communities in the UK on neighbourhood regeneration projects, has won this year’s Turner Prize. The £25,000 award, one of the largest given to a contemporary artist in the UK, was presented by artist and musician Kim Gordon at the Glasgow art space Tramway, in partnership with Tate.
Assemble’s long-term collaboration with the Liverpool land trust Granby Four Streets to create affordable housing “shows the importance of artistic practice being able to drive and shape urgent issues in the post-industrial era,” the prize press release states.
The other shortlisted artists, who will receive £5,000 each, are: Bonnie Camplin, for The Military Industrial Complex, a study room installation exploring “consensus reality”; Janice Kerbel, for DOUG, a musical performance consisting of nine songs for six voices; and Nicole Wermers, for Infrastruktur, an installation on the theme of consumerist culture. For the first time, the exhibition of the nominated artists was held in Scotland, at Tramway gallery, where it remains on view until 17 January 2016.
The jury consisted of Alistair Hudson, the director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; Joanna Mytkowska, the director of the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art; Kyla McDonald, the artistic director of Glasgow Sculpture Studios, and the critic and curator Jan Verwoert.
