MADRID.- Bertille Bak has been selected as the winner of the Mario Merz Prize third edition in the Art category.

The Mario Merz Prize is the only international award for art and music. Previous winners in the Art category were Wael Shawky (first edition) and Petrit Halilaj (second edition).

Beatrice Merz announced Bak as this year’s Art category winner, on Thursday 10 October at the Italian Embassy in Madrid, on the occasion of the Mario Merz exhibition El tiempo es mudo at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Bertille Bak was chosen from a shortlist of international artists including Mircea Cantor (Romania), David Maljković (Croatia), Maria Papadimitriou (Greece), and Unknown Friend (USA).

The winning artist was selected via an open public vote, and a jury comprised of Manuel Borja-Villel (Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), Lawrence Weiner (artist), Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director of the New Museum, New York - artistic director of the Fondazione Trussardi, Milan) and Beatrice Merz (President of the Merz Foundation).

As the winning artist, Bak will be commissioned to produce a new site-specific solo exhibition at Fondazione Merz in Turin.

On their decision of selecting Bertille Bak, the jury commented: In the face of excellent competition from this year’s shortlist, in terms of quality, conceptual depth and precision, Bertille Bak’s submission has emerged as the closest to the characteristics sought by the Mario Merz Prize. Bertille Bak places the human being at the centre of her work. She has come into contact with various communities weakened and marginalised by the difficult context in which they live, and transfers their dreams, desires, riches, and knowledge into art through a choral, poetic and ironic tale. Using different media, from drawing to video and the use of technology, the artist formalises the creative process by creating a bond with her ‘fellow travellers’, with an open mind, empathy and social attention.

Bertille Bak (Born 1983 Arras, France) Lives and works in Paris.

Bertille Bak pursues a sociological and political perspective through her work. The process is based on the artist’s modus operandi as she engages and shares the life of communities living on the edge of the dominant culture in order to encourage a non-revolutionary or non-violent reaction, which Bak defines as “alternative revolt” against the intolerable decisions that make life harsher for these communities.

Through the sharing of everyday life, of the study of the territory, the analysis of the social relationships, culture, traditions and economy, Bak takes on the role of a social provocateur putting herself forward as a critical conscience to raise political awareness among her interlocutors. The result is collective portraits with an unconventional twist, often based on the research of individual mythologies, in a determined attempt to preserve the traces of memory. Bak worked at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a student of Christian Boltanski.