BRUSSELS.- The non-profit organization ‘La Jeune Peinture Belge – De Jonge Belgische Schilderkunst’ announces the winner of the BelgianArtPrize 2027. Rossella Biscotti was selected from more than 60 nominated artists and is invited to create and present new work next year at Bozar - Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels (April-June 2027).

The BelgianArtPrize is a biennial award for contemporary visual art, open to Belgian artists and artists living in Belgium. Since its founding in 1950, it has consistently provided an opportunity to introduce new audiences to the work of Belgian artists. The BelgianArtPrize aims not only to support an artist’s career or practice, but also to highlight the urgency, impact, and relevance of their work at a given moment.

Since 2017, there has no longer been an open call; instead, a list of nominators is compiled every two years. With this list of around 40 leading figures from the Belgian contemporary art world, the prize seeks more than ever to reflect the multiplicity and diversity of voices within the Belgian art scene. Each nominator may put forward two artists. Belgian contemporary art institutions are also invited to cast a preferential vote, which feeds directly into the shortlist. All nominations are made anonymously.

From a longlist of more than 60 artists, Rossella Biscotti was unanimously chosen as the BelgianArtPrize 2027 laureate. She receives a prize of €20,000, donated by the Gillion-Crowet family—founders of the BelgianArtPrize—as well as an additional production budget to realize a new work for the exhibition at Bozar.

Composition of the jury

The jury that selected the 2027 laureate consisted of:

• Zoë Gray (Director of Exhibitions at Bozar)

• Maarten Vanden Eynde (Artist and former BAP laureate)

• Alain Servais (Collector)

• Amira Gad (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and co-curator of Sonsbeek 2026)

• Caroline Dumalin (Artistic Director of Morpho and curator of the Belgian Pavilion in Venice 2026)

• Zeynep Kubat (Curator at FOMU in Antwerp)

• Sandra Patron (Director of CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain in Bordeaux)

Jury Statement

The jury was convinced by the originality, consistency and brilliance of Biscotti’s work. She explores pressing social issues – such as climate crisis, migration and postcolonialism – in a subtle and nuanced manner. Biscotti integrates broad historical narratives with subjective personal experiences, bringing to life the multiplicity of stories that exist in the margins of official History. The forms and materials that she employs to embody her research-driven practice are diverse and surprising.

While Biscotti has received significant international recognition through major exhibitions in institutions across Europe, her work has had less exposure in Belgium in recent years. The jury felt it was the right moment to award her the BelgianArtPrize, thereby increasing the visibility of her practice and acknowledging her influential, though often understated, position within the Belgian art scene. Her work speaks to a generation of artists whose practices have had an impact on the broader cultural landscape in Belgium and beyond.

Rossella Biscotti (1978) lives between Rotterdam and Brussels.

Biscotti’s practice spans among sculpture, performance, sound, and filmmaking. Stemming from extended research processes, personal encounters, interdisciplinary collaborations, and subtle interrogations of sites and histories, her work engages deeply with spatial installations and material experimentation, linking themes of memory, identity, and social structures. In recent years, the artist has focused on the relationships between body, state, and environment—developing new imaginaries that connect institutional critique with ecological and speculative methodologies.

Rossella Biscotti has participated in major exhibitions in important institutions, including Thailand Biennial (2025), Sharjah Biennial 16 (2025), Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024), Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh (2020), Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2019), V-A-C Foundation, Moscow (2016), 55th Venice Biennale, the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012), and Manifesta 9, Genk (2012). Her most recent solo exhibition was held at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, in 2024. Biscotti has received several awards, including the Stipendium Mies van der Rohe (2015), MAXXI Premio Italia Arte Contemporanea (2010), the second prize at the Prix de Rome (2009), and the City of Geneva Grand Prize at the 12th Biennial of Moving Images, Geneva (2007).