Tarik Kiswanson has been announced as the winner of the 2023 Prix Marcel Duchamp. He will be awarded €35,000 as well as a residency at Villa Albertine, a French institution for the arts based in the USA.
The award was the culmination of a group exhibition at the Centre Pompidou co-organised by the museum and the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art (ADIAF), which hosts the Prix Marcel Duchamp. Kiswanson presents his work alongside the other prize nominees, including Bertille Bak, Bouchra Khalili and Massinissa Selmani.
Kiswanson’s installation The Wait (2023), created for the exhibition, juxtaposes the stages of biological development with those of healing in the aftermath of war, trauma and displacement.
Born in Sweden to a Palestinian refugee family, the artist explores themes of identity, metamorphosis and transience through sculpture, writing, drawing, performance, film and sound. His most recent solo exhibition was held at the Bonniers Konsthall, and he has exhibited his work at the ongoing 2023 Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, the 2018 Gwangju Biennial, the 2019 Performa Biennial and the 2022 Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Kiswanson said: “My identity has been defined by several cultures, my abstract works stem from my own condition as a second-generation immigrant, shaped in the aftermath of displacement. Throughout my life, I have used sculpture and writing to explore transitory and interstitial states of the human condition.”
The Prix Marcel Duchamp was established by the ADIAF to recognise the contributions of French and France-based artists to the local art scene. Four artists are nominated annually based on 60 studio visits with eligible candidates. Each year since 2016, the nominees present a group exhibition at Centre Pompidou before the winner is announced.
This year, the exhibition runs until 8 January 2024.
