Pauline Curnier Jardin Wins Germany’s Most Prestigious Prize for Younger Artists

Germany’s most prestigious prize
for young artists has been won by Pauline Curnier
Jardin. The Berlin-based,
French artist was the unanimous choice of the jury of the tenth
edition of the  Preis der Nationalgalerie, which was announced
last night, September 12, at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum, where
works by the shortlisted artists is on show.

Jardin, who was born in Marseilles, presents an immersive,
highly feminine installation that included a film work. In a
statement, the prize jury called it “compelling,” and like “a
delirious circus.” The artist’s work provides “an unsettling
experience based on the confusion of our time,” they added.

The Preis der Nationalgalerie is one of the most prestigious
awards in Germany. It is awarded every two years to an artist under
the age of 40 who lives and works in Germany. Past winners include
Anne Imhof, Omer Fast, Olafur Eliasson, and Elmgreen & Dragset.
Although the award does not include prize money for the winner or
runners up, it does mean Jardin gets a major solo exhibition at one
of the Nationalgaerie’s Berlin museums in 2020.

The runners up are the
British artist Simon Fujiwara, Flaka Haliti from Kosovo, and Katja
Novitskova from Estonia—all whom are based in
Germany. 

A common concern running through
the works in the exhibition is the state of contemporary European
society. Novitskova
explores technological development with her ongoing research into
biotechnology; Fujiwara
presents four distinct works that illustrate today’s mass
consumption (one included the largest archive of the
book 50 Shades of Grey), and Haliti presents a pair of robots
fabricated from materials from a NATO-led international
peacekeeping force in her home country of Kosovo.

On this year’s high-powered jury
were the director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Annie
Fletcher, the Hamburger Bahnhof curator Anna-Catharina Gebbers,
the outgoing director of
the Nationalgalerie Udo Kittelmann, the Fondation
Beyeler’s Theodora
Vischer and the ex-MOCA LA chief, now director of the Serralves Museum of
Contemporary Art in Porto, director Philippe Vergne.

The public can vote towards the audience award, which will be
announced in early 2020.

“Preis der Nationalgalerie 2019,” August 16 through February
16, 2020, Hamburger Bahnof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin.

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