Press Releases

The winner of the £40,000 Artes Mundi 9 Prize – the UK’s largest international contemporary art
prize – selected by an expert panel of jurors from the shortlisted artists Firelei Báez (Dominican
Republic), Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa), Meiro Koizumi (Japan), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
(Puerto Rico), Prabhakar Pachpute (India) and Carrie Mae Weems (USA), will now be announced
digitally in May, when it is hoped visitors will be able to experience the exhibition in person.

Speaking to some of the most significant issues of our time through the works on display, Artes
Mundi 9 has been extended until Sunday 5 September. Currently installed across National Museum
Cardiff, Chapter and g39, the exhibition is ready to open to the public once Wales returns to Tier 2
restrictions. Until that time, audiences can experience a taster of each artist’s work online through
short-form guided video walkthroughs and still photography at www.artesmundi.org.

As well as a powerfully reconfigured multi-channel video installation by Meiro Koizumi, Artes Mundi
9 marks the global premiere of major new works including Carrie Mae Weems’ photographic
installation The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, a new film, About Falling by Beatriz
Santiago Muñoz, and a series of dynamic large-scale paintings by Firelei Báez. An immersive
installation comprising sculpture, drawing and sound by Dineo Seshee Bopape uses soil and clay
from Welsh sacred sites combined with earth from other locations around the world including Île de
Gorée, Senegal; James River, Richmond, Virginia; Mississippi River, New Orleans; and the Achimota
Forest, Accra, Ghana. And Prabhakar Pachpute has developed an installation of paintings on canvas banners that continues his critique of the individual worker within the context of larger corporate
and economic forces.

A robust public programme has launched online alongside the exhibition, structured as a series of
talks, videos, podcasts, live streamed and downloadable activities and events. Starting with panelbased
discussions, these will provide deeper insight into the practice, ideas, issues and thinking of
each of the shortlisted artists and their work.