Artes Mundi 4

artes mundi 4

Yael Bartana Yael Bartana was the winner of the fourth Artes Mundi prize in 2010. She uses photography, film, video, sound and installation to create complex visualisations. Using documentation, simulations and re-enactments Bartana explores the relationship of the individual within society. That society is often Israel or other communities with strong connections to Jewish – Israeli history. Born in 1970, Yael Bartana’s work addresses issues of the mechanism of nationalism and the formation of identity, focusing upon Israel and the Israeli situation.

Fernando Bryce Fernando Bryce stopped painting over ten years ago to work primarily in Indian ink. He is interested in examining how visual and written media create and convey a perception of a country, a people, or an historical event. He adopts a drawing style that is reminiscent of mid 20th century comic strips and re-presents printed material he finds, from political propaganda to promotional literature. Through this process of copying, he highlights the ways in which facts are constructed, culture is described and history is reported. Through his reproductions he questions the credibility of the printed page. Born in Peru he now divides his time between Lima and Berlin.

Ergin Çavuşoğlu Ergin Çavuşoğlu was born in 1968 and brought up in Bulgaria. He left the country in 1990 to join his family in Istanbul. They had left Bulgaria with thousands of others of Turkish descent just months before the collapse of the communist regime in response to a campaign of forceful assimilation. In the mid-1990s Çavuşoğlu moved to London where he now lives and works. In his work, he draws upon his experiences and constructs poetic representations of journeys. He plays upon whether artistic images have the capacity to observe the social and cultural phenomena of our times. His film and video installations are meditations on the shifting aspects of today’s globalised society.

Olga Chernysheva Olga Chernysheva uses a range of media to produce artworks that explore contemporary Russia. Based in Moscow her subjects are often observed negotiating a society in turbulence, where the sense of a shared future has disappeared. Her films, photographs, drawings and object-based works go beyond any appearance of the documentary and become lyrical images of individuals trying to make sense of their lives at a time when society is in obvious flux.

Chen Chieh-jen Chen Chieh-jen works with photography, film, installation and performance to explore issues connected to globalisation, in particular labour, consumerism and migration. He makes work as an act of resistance… ‘as an act of connection, linking together the history of people who have been excluded from the dominant discourse, the real-life situations of areas that are being ignored, and ‘others’ who are being isolated. In this way, I resist the state of amnesia in consumer society.’ Based in Taiwan he is also interested in his country’s particular position, seen by many as an independent country, but by China as one of its states. The precision and elegance of his work belies the corruption and unfair nature of life. Portrait Kasmalieva&Djumaliev

Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev live and work together in Bishek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, a country which has been at the centre of change and protest since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result their work offers a complex insight into modern Russia and Central Asia. Through video and photographic installations they explore how the fall of communism has affected the lives of thousands of Kyrgyz people. In one five channel installation they examine how economic and political unrest has changed the value of goods on the Great Silk Road, causing many to flee the country.

Adrian Paci Adrian Paci originally studied painting in Albania where he was born in 1969. Initially earning a living from restoring early religious frescoes, he left to study in Italy. Towards the end of the 1990s he re-settled in Milan when his homeland went through a period of chaotic political and social change. Many of his early works reflect the consequences of political conflict and upheaval but he has said that “Albania and our emigration are the context of my works rather than their theme.”