| 2019 | Eszter Salamon | Éliane Radigue |
| 2017 | Els Dietvorst |
| 2015 | Artway of Thinking |
| 2013 | Wim Vandekeybus | Ultima Vez |
| 2011 | Sven Augustijnen |
| 2007 | Agnieszka Podgórska |
| 2004 | Nassim Amaouche | Ula Tabari | Timon Koulmasis |
| 2002 | Sylvie Blocher | Campement Urbain |
The Evens Arts Prize honours artists who engage with contemporary challenges in Europe and shape inspirational visions for our common world.
Far from reducing artistic practice to a function – whether a social balm or a political catalyst – the Evens Arts Prize supports aesthetically and intellectually powerful work that pushes the understanding of alterity, difference, and plurality in new directions, questions values and narratives, creates space for silenced or dissonant voices, and reflects on diverse forms of togetherness and belonging.
The biennial Prize is awarded to a European artist working in the fields of visual or performing arts; it carries a sum of €15,000. The laureates are selected by an independent jury, from a list of internationally acclaimed artists, nominated by representatives of major European cultural institutions.
Read more about the Evens Arts Prize laureates below.
The Evens Arts Prize honours artists who engage with contemporary challenges in Europe and shape inspirational visions for our common world.
Far from reducing artistic practice to a function – whether a social balm or a political catalyst – the Evens Arts Prize supports aesthetically and intellectually powerful work that pushes the understanding of alterity, difference, and plurality in new directions, questions values and narratives, creates space for silenced or dissonant voices, and reflects on diverse forms of togetherness and belonging.
The biennial Prize is awarded to a European artist working in the fields of visual or performing arts; it carries a sum of €15,000. The laureates are selected by an independent jury, from a list of internationally acclaimed artists, nominated by representatives of major European cultural institutions.
Read more about the Evens Arts Prize laureates below.
| 2019 | Eszter Salamon | Éliane Radigue |
| 2017 | Els Dietvorst |
| 2015 | Artway of Thinking |
| 2013 | Wim Vandekeybus | Ultima Vez |
| 2011 | Sven Augustijnen |
| 2007 | Agnieszka Podgórska |
| 2004 | Nassim Amaouche | Ula Tabari | Timon Koulmasis |
| 2002 | Sylvie Blocher | Campement Urbain |
Artist and choreographer Eszter Salamon received the Prize for her ambitious and uncompromising work that explores what has been forgotten, excluded and repressed in Western consciousness.
A Special Mention of the Jury was awarded to composer Éliane Radigue in recognition of her unique and pioneering path, in constant quest of the attunement with the world.
Read more:
The Evens Arts Prize 2019Artist and filmmaker Els Dietvorst became laureate for her work, a contemporary parable confronting timeless questions of life, struggle, and the figure of an outsider.
Read about the recent retrospective of the artist's work at M HKA in Antwerp.
Artist collective Artway of Thinking was distinguished for initiating collective creative processes, where the artist gets actively involved in the process of social change.
Choreographer Wim Vandekeybus and his company Ultima Vez won the Prize for their important contribution to European contemporary dance, and their social and cultural commitment at both local and international levels.
Artist Sven Augustijnen was lauded for his body of work that challenged the traditional codes of documentary practice and questioned recent European colonial history, its underlying narratives and current political practices.
Artist Agnieszka Podgórska was distinguished for her work on the body as a 'first language' in our relationship with others, as a prerequisite for living together.
In the framework of its 10th anniversary, the Evens Foundation pursued the reflections that accompanied the Evens Arts Prize to develop the Floating Territories project, linking the contemporary art biennials of Istanbul, Athens and Venice. Artists, curators, philosophers and cultural activists were invited to explore the responsibilities and limits of art in the context of a Europe in motion.
Read more about the Floating Territories project.
The Foundation launched a contest for short film screenplays, aimed at young directors from Europe and the Middle East, so as to create spaces for dialogue between these two cultural territories. The prize, awarded to Nassim Amaouche, Ula Tabari and Timon Koulmasis, enabled the creation of three short films, which were critically acclaimed and won awards at international film festivals.
The inaugural Evens Arts Prize was awarded to Sylvie Blocher with the collective Campement Urbain. The prize recognized their reflection on the significance and the possibilities of artistic interventions in the public space.
Intishal Al Timimi, Arab Film Festival, Rotterdam | Bart De Baere, M HKA Museum for Contemporary Art, Antwerp | Pierre Bal-Blanc, CAC, Bretigny | Manuel Borja-Villel, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid | Tanya Barson, Tate Modern, London | Andrea Bellini, Castello di Rivoli, Turin | Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid | Catherine David, Witte de With Rotterdam | Ann Demeester, De Appel, Amsterdam | Ekaterina Degot, Steirischer Herbst, Graz | Paul Dujardin, Bozar, Brussels | Elvira Dyangani Ose, Showroom, London | Silvia Fanti, Live Arts Week /Xing, Bologna | Jacob Fabricius, Malmo Konsthall | Lars Henrik Gass, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen | artist Jochen Gerz | Cristina Grande, Serralves Foundation, Porto | Laurent Jacob, Festival de Cannes, Ciné Fondation | curator Hou Hanru | Hicham Khalidi, Van Eyck Institute, Maastricht | Maria Lind, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm | Emma Lavigne, Centre Pompidou, Metz | Andrea Lissoni, Tate Modern | Malgorzata Ludwisiak, Ujazdowski Castle, Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw | Frank Madlener, IRCAM, Paris | philosopher Marie José Mondzain | Joana Mytkowska, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw | curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist | Mark Peranson, Locarno Film Festival | Nataša Petresin-Bachelez, Contour Biennale 9, Mechelen | artist Michelangelo Pistoletto | Jan Raes, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam | Maria Ines Rodriguez, Musac, Leon | Tiago Rodrigues, Teatro National Dona Maria II, Lisbon | Eva Sangiorgi, Viennale, Vienna | Nicolaus Schafhausen, Witte de With, Rotterdam | Christophe Slagmuylder, Wiener Festwochen, Vienna | Dirk Snauwaert, Wiels, Brussels | Alistair Spalding, Sadler’s Wells, London | Christa Spatt, Tanzquartier, Vienna | Jaroslaw Suchan, Art Museum, Lodz | Virve Sutinen, Tanz im August Festival, Berlin | Igor Toronyi-Lalic, London Contemporary Music Festival | Marc-Olivier Wahler, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
*The positions listed applied at the time of the participation in the prize.