Boris Kurdi, laureat of the 2020/2021 Pernod Ricard prize

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Image © Fondation Pernod Ricard
The prestigious prize that has in the past rewarded the likes of Lili Renaud Dewar (the recent recipient of the Marcel Duchamp award), Katinka Block,Clement Cogitore or Liv Schulman, has celebrated its 22 edition, the first to be organised in its new space near the gare Saint-Lazare.

Named "Bonaventure", this edition, commissioned by Lilou Vidal, brought together artists such as Boris Kurdi, Meris Angioletti, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Minia Biabiany, Gina Folly, Renaud Jerez, Tarek Lakhrissi, Ghita Skali, and Adrien Vescovi.

 

The work for which he was awarded the Pernod Ricard foundation prize was a mix between drawing and sculpture, representing the number 1. Born in 1990 in Strasbourg, Boris Kurdi studied philosophy and Germanic civilisation at the Sorbonne before turning to art. He was recently a resident of the Drawing Lab in Paris.

 

Kurdi is "interested in the intentional forces that we exert upon images and objects and the context of their making in art and society" he thinks about "the world of business and the tertiary, of childhood, engineering and especially history." He also explains that history "unfolds in museums, factories, in the shape of codes, symbols and characters that allow me to turn it into a landscape."
 

The Pernod Ricard foundation prize was first launched in 1999 and is dedicated to French artists under 40. Since 2020, it has experienced a significant change and goes beyond a simple exhibit with an award ceremony. The selected artists are personally followed for a year prior to the prize. The winner receives €15.000 in prize money that allows him to create a project abroad. Their work is also acquired and gifted to the national museum for modern art at the Centre Pompidou where it joins its collection.