Peruvian artist Antonio Paucar has been distinguished with the Artes Mundi 2024 award, one of the most relevant international contemporary art prizes, endowed with 40,000 pounds sterling (around $54,000). His work addresses contemporary conflicts faced by indigenous communities, particularly environmental threats to their territory, home, and collective memory. The jury highlighted Paucar as 'an artist whose expansive practice reflects a sustained commitment to his local environment and communities, creating works that powerfully dialogue with marginalized contexts and histories traversed by extraction and dispossession.' His work combines performance, sculpture, and video, and is nourished by Andean material culture and community practices linked to indigenous peoples. For this edition of Artes Mundi, Paucar presented a series of large-scale textile sculptures, made from hand-woven alpaca wool, along with videos that document the performative and ritual processes that give rise to the pieces. In parallel, Australian artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson was recognized with the Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize, which allows for the acquisition of one of her works for the permanent collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. The decision was adopted unanimously by the jury of the eleventh edition of the competition, whose exhibition is held in various spaces in Wales until March 1st.
