BRUSSELS.- The non-profit organisation ‘La Jeune Peinture Belge - De Jonge Belgische Schilderkunst’ announces the laureate of the BelgianArtPrize 2025. Suchan Kinoshita was selected by the jury and is invited to create and present new work at the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels / Bozar from 24 April to 29 June 2025.
The BelgianArtPrize is the best known award for contemporary art in Belgium. Its aim is to support Belgian artists or international artists residing in Belgium and strengthen their national and international recognition. Thanks to the award, the laureate will also gain exposure to a wider audience.
Every two years, an artist is given the opportunity to realise a new artistic project and exhibit it at Bozar. The laureate receives the Gillion-Crowet prize of €20,000 in addition to a production budget provided by the Proximus Art Collection.
The organisation recently overhauled its operations and now guarantees diversity in the list of nominators, who compile the longlist, and in the final jury, which selects one laureate from the longlist. Since the prize’s inception, the jury has traditionally been made up of a cross-section of people working for major art institutions, independent curators, artists and collectors. The organisation aims to respect the diversity of artistic expression that is so characteristic of the Belgian art world.
Composition of the jury
The jury that selected the 2025 laureate consisted of:
· Carine Fol (curator Art in Public Space, City of Brussels)
· Tina Gillen (artist)
· Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg (director, Sonsbeek, Arnhem)
· Zoë Gray (director of exhibitions, Bozar, Brussels)
· Helena Kritis (chief curator, Wiels, Brussels)
· Kasia Redsisz (artistic director, KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels)
· Jacques Verhaegen (lawyer and art collector)
· Zoé Whitley (director, Chisenhale Gallery, London)
After careful consideration, they unanimously and independently chose Suchan Kinochita as the BelgianArtPrize 2025 laureate.
Jury Statement
"Suchan Kinoshita is a uniquely accomplished artist who has, over many decades, achieved a highly comprehensive and complete oeuvre.
The jury's deep appreciation for her visual language extends to the fact that she is an active and committed pedagogue, teaching and mentoring the next generations of artists. Her sensitivity to time and space, and her enduring curiosity for life, create works and projects that are often process based, and in which the viewer becomes aware of the moment. That she interweaves a profound conceptualism with relatable lived experience, generosity and humour has generated the highest possible regard from BAP25."
Suchan Kinoshita (Tokyo, 1960) lives and works in Brussels. She studied rhythmics and later contemporary music theatre at the music academy in Cologne from 1981 onwards. In 1983, as a member of Theater am Marienplatz Krefeld, she worked as a performer, stage and light designer, and script writer of her own pieces. This period was followed by a two-year residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (1988-1990). She was selected for the PS1 residency in New York in 1993/1994. In 1992, she won the Prix de Rome in Amsterdam in the category “art and public space” and in 2015 she received one of the Greenberger Awards in New York. In 2021, she started the publishing house Allerleirauh and published Da Capo on the occasion of the cancelled 50th anniversary of Art Basel. Since 2006, she teaches at the Kunstakademie Münster.
Kinoshita’s works deal with combinations of several disciplines. Throughout her oeuvre, one can find elements from theatre and experimental music, two fields in which she was active for some time. Duration (time) and a conscious approach regarding the position of the viewer are two important aspects in her work. No themes, rather an interest in reading between the lines would describe her engagement. Kinoshita considers her work as a space where different works interact with each other but also with the viewer. How these different roles are taken by different players within a specific spatial condition is something she continues exploring. Lately she also engages in making cat sculptures (der siebte Franz) and ragpaintings (Lumpenmalerei).
Her work was shown in several international exhibitions such as the 4th Biennale of Istanbul (1994); Manifesta I (1996); Sydney Biennale (1998); Carnegie International/Pittsburg (1999/2000); eerste huwelijk/tweede huwelijk, M HKA ( 2002); 2007 Skulptur Projekte Münster; In 10 Minuten, Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2010); Operating Theatre, Institut de Carton, Brussels ( 2016); das A und O vom wohnen, LLS Paleis, Antwerp (2018); PLATZhalter taking PLACE surPLACE, Playground in STUK, Leuven (2019); proposition d’en face, contribution for the collection of KANAL-Centre Pompidou Brussels (2019); Gap Walk Gym, as part of Risquons Tout, WIELS, Brussels (2020); Architectonische Psychodramen, Kunstverein Münster (2022); Hängen Herum, Etablissement d’en face, Brussels, (2023).
