Chanel has named the first winners of its Chanel Next Prize, a new biennial award that the French label founded in March to support 10 international artists and creatives working in film, music, performance and visual arts. The award was created as part of a larger initiative called the Chanel Culture Fund, established last year in the wake of the pandemic to expand the luxury brand’s support for the arts.
The award is given to artists who, according to the fashion brand, are redefining their respective fields. In a statement, Yana Peel, global head of arts and culture at Chanel, explained that the award is part of the legacy of the brand’s founder, the late Gabrielle Chanel, who has supported the avant-garde artists of its time. “We are extending the deep history of Chanel’s cultural engagement, empowering big ideas and creating opportunities for an emerging generation of artists to imagine the next,” she said.
Each winner will receive € 100,000 ($ 130,000). It provides access to a network of mentors selected by the brand over the next 20 months. Each recipient will be authorized to allocate the funding of the prize to any project of their choice.
As part of the Chanel Culture Fund, Chanel will also partner with a number of institutions to establish other awards and support exhibition programming. Chanel collaborators include the Center Pompidou in Paris, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Underground Museum in Los Angeles and GES-2, a recently opened contemporary art center in Moscow.
The 10 award recipients were selected by actress Tilda Swinton, artist Cao Fei and architect David Adjaye. Each artist was nominated by an advisory committee of 25 international leaders in the cultural sector working in various fields. Below is a look at the winners of the inaugural Chanel Next Prize group:
– Jung Jae-il, a Seoul-born, Berlin-based composer whose work fuses Korean and Western sounds.
–Keiken, a London and Berlin-based collective comprising artists Hana Omori, Isabel Ramos and Tanya Cruz, who use installations, performances, game engines and augmented reality in their practice.
– Lual Mayen, a South Sudanese refugee and game designer who designs educational and social impact tools.
– Marlene Monteiro Freitas, a Lisbon-based dancer whose choreography refers to her native island of Cape Verde.
– Rungano Nyoni, a London-based Zambian-Welsh director and screenwriter who was recognized for her 2017 film I am not a witch.
– Precious Okoyomon, a New York-based artist and poet who won the 2021 Frieze Artist Award and is known for his immersive installations that examine the natural world and its connections to racial histories.
– Marie Schleef, a Berlin-based director whose work examines the dynamics of male-dominated theatrical conventions.
– Botis Seva, dancer and choreographer based in London whose practice is rooted in hip-hop.
– Wang Bing, a filmmaker known for his projects that examine people on the fringes of Chinese society.
– Eduardo Williams, artist and filmmaker based in Paris and Buenos Aires whose documentary and fictional works question the role of the camera.
