BASEL.- Annet Gelink Gallery is proud to announce that Ryan Gander has been awarded this year’s Baloise Art Prize for his work “Is this guilt in you too (the study of a car in a field)”.

For the seventh time the Baloise Group awarded the price at the “Art Statements” sector at Art Basel 36. The Baloise Group acquired a group of works by Ryan Gander, among them “Is this guilt in you too (the study of a car in a field)”, and donated them to the Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna.

The members of this year’s jury were: James Lingwood, Artangel London, Christoph Heinrich, Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Edelbert Koeb, Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Cristina Bechtler, Ink Tree Editions, Küstnacht and Martin Schwander, Fine Art Advisor of Baloise, Chairman of the jury.

The jury characterized the work as follows: The point of departure in Ryan gander’s video piece “Is this guilt in you too (the study of a car in a field)” is an enigmatic image: the camera pans slowly from above down to an automobile standing in a snow-covered filed but the film breaks off before any anticipated action can take place. Instead an empty screen in various shades of grey follows until the camera starts panning all over again. An interrupted scene which gives us no clues as to whether it is the beginning or the end of the story. A girl’s voice is heard off-screen sometimes talking about the take, sometimes speculating on what it means, sometimes slipping into the role of the on-site viewer. The artist functions as an unseen provider of keywords, his presence marked only by the girl’s answers. Ryan Gander oscillates between the hint of a self-contained narrative and free association, while simultaneously examining the means and potential of the film medium itself.