Tate Britain Linbury Galleries
30 September 2008 – 18 January 2009
The Turner Prize 2008 exhibition, supported by Tate Patrons, opens on 30 September at Tate Britain. It features work by the four shortlisted artists, Runa Islam, Mark Leckey, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes. The winner of the prize will be announced during a live broadcast of the award ceremony on Channel 4 on the evening of Monday 1 December. This year’s prize fund is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists.
The winner will be decided by a jury whose members are: David Adjaye, architect and Director, Adjaye Associates; Daniel Birnbaum, Director, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt; Suzanne Cotter, Acting Director, Modern Art Oxford; Jennifer Higgie, Editor, Frieze; Stephen Deuchar, Director, Tate Britain and Chair of the Jury.
The shortlisted artists for the Turner Prize 2008 are:
Runa Islam who presents three film works including Be The First To See What You See As You See It 2004 and First Day of Spring 2005, both of which were shown in the solo exhibition she was shortlisted for, Centre of Gravity, at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen. Islam is also presenting CINEMATOGRAPHY 2007. Islam creates closely choreographed films in which she innovatively uses the apparatus and illusion of film to lucidly question and re-imagine contemporary modes of representation.
Mark Leckey who presents a group of works that focus on a series of sculptural animals including Felix gets Broadcasted 2007, Made in ‘Eaven 2004 and Search Engine. Leckey also exhibits Cinema-in-the-Round 2006 which was shown in the exhibitions he was shortlisted for at Industrial Light & Magic at Le Consortium, Dijon, and Resident at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne. With wit and originality, Leckey continues to find new genres through which to communicate his fascination with contemporary visual culture.
Goshka Macuga who presents a carefully-staged installation that takes as a starting point the professional and romantic relationships between artists Paul Nash and Eileen Agar, Lilly Reich and Mies van der Rohe. The sculptures Haus der Frau I, Haus der Frau II and Deutsches Volk – Deutsche Arbeit were shown at the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art which she was shortlisted for. Examining the conventions of archiving, exhibition making and museum display, Macuga enlists the collaboration of artists past and present in dramatic environments that allow for new associations and stories to be read.
Cathy Wilkes who has created a new room-sized sculpture presenting a highly-charged arrangement of readymades, sculptures, found objects and manipulated images. Wilkes’s installations are formally precise and contemplative. Her work, composed using an eloquent and complex visual vocabulary, is characterised by the direct invocation of daily human experience.
The Turner Prize award is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 6 May 2008. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.