Julien Creuzet has been selected for the award’s 2021 edition
Multimedia artist Julien Creuzet has been announced as the winner of this year’s BMW Art Journey Award – now in its tenth edition. Creuzet, born in 1986, is based in Montreuil and is represented by HIGH ART, Paris.
Creuzet sees the award as a point of return to his family home in Martinique: ‘the heart of my imagination’. There, among many elements, he plans to work with art students from Fort-de-France, and musicians and filmmakers; he proposes to create sculptures on Antillean fauna; to film underwater scenes in Guadeloupe; and to collect sonic and visual material for a ‘Caribbean road movie’ that blends fiction and documentary by way of poetry and 3D art.
The other shortlisted artists for the award were Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, born in 1978 and based in Seoul, represented by Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, and Alice Wang, born in 1983, based in Los Angeles and Shanghai, and represented by Capsule Shanghai.
The BMW Art Journey, a joint initiative with Art Basel, supports artists as they travel around the world, for research, inspiration, and new encounters, as they create new work. Artists showing in Art Basel’s selection for emerging artists in Hong Kong are eligible for the BMW Art Journey.
The 2021 jury in Hong Kong was comprised of Claire Hsu, cofounder of Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong; Matthias Mühling, Director of Munich’s Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin; Philip Tinari, Director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing; and the artist Samson Young, winner of the first BMW Art Journey in 2015.
‘Julien Creuzet’s journey is not a trip to a distant and unknown destination, but rather a return to a familiar place – a place of family, youth, and education,’ the jury said in a statement. ‘The project rethinks mobility, the climate crisis, and societal shifts in the wake of COVID-19. Focusing on a single location, Creuzet underscores the importance of the local and of reconnecting with one’s roots. His journey combines histories with fantasies, and ancestral connections with cosmopolitanism.’
‘We were impressed by the generosity of his project, how it makes space for other artists – a gesture of care and humility that’s in keeping with our healing moment.’
This year, ArtReview is partnering with the BMW Art Journey – stay tuned for a live panel with Julien Creuzet, Instagram takeovers and podcast editions. Follow Creuzet’s journey on BMW Group Culture.
