Kurimanzutto, Mexico, has announced that Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul is the principal laureate of the 2016 Prince Claus Award. Worth €100,000, the prize is granted every year by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development to artists, thinkers and cultural organisations undertaking transformative work in the developing world. On the occasion of the organisation’s 20th anniversary, the committee selected only six laureates (also including Lebanese-Egyptian art historian Bahia Shehab and Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia) who are each invited to support any project of their choosing, on the condition that it must, in some way, enhance the work being produced in their environment. The Palme d’Or-winner has chosen to continue funding the construction of his studio, in order to ‘have a space in Chiang Mai to host a proper workshop and discussion with filmmakers, artists’, Art Asia Pacific reports. He will receive his award at a ceremony held at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam on 15 December.
Weerasethakul’s first Thai retrospective is currently on view at the recently opened Maiiam Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, through 10 September, and will then travel to Para Site, Hong Kong (17 September – 27 November). Look out for our review in the October 2016 issue of ArtReview.
9 September 2016.
