Haiti-born Berlin-based artist Jean-Ulrick Désert has been awarded the inaugural Wi Di Mimba Wi Prize. The award – open to artists of colour based in Germany – set up by the foundation AKB Stiftung and SAVVY Contemporary, will each year allocate a working grant of €30,000, as well as provide funds to support the making of a new artwork. The jury on this year’s panel were: Bassam El Baroni (curator, art critic, lecturer), Karina Griffith (artist and film maker), Otobong Nkanga (artist), Mirjami Schuppert (curator, and coordinator of WDMW for AKB Stiftung) and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (SAVVY Contemporary).
Désert was shortlisted with Karimah Ashadu, Ana Paula Oliveira Martins dos Santos and Lerato Shadi. In a statement on choosing Désert as the winner, the jury said that he ‘figuratively pokes, prods and tickles the grotesque characters he plays on screen and in public places to provoke lingering affective responses to Black experiences in Europe.’
In his own statement, Désert said: ‘The prize arrives for me at a critical time – in my art-practice and for us collectively. We are in a moment where we have reached a global pivoting point. A fulcrum hinged on a virus and our options for collective actions of creative production and experiences. Outside of crisis, I am often reminded of the concrete advice given to me thirty years ago by the late Okwui Enwezor: ‘Create relevant work.’ And during crisis, as we are in now, the cultural works fulfill their critical function in the social framework.’
