Turner Prize Goes To Londonderry In 2013

The 2013 Turner Prize is to be hosted in Londonderry Northern Ireland as part of its city of culture celebrations. The UK City of Culture also stands to host The Booker and the Brits. The three-month-long Turner Prize exhibition will highlight the 5 shortlisted artists, and culminate with the prize giving ceremony announcing the winner. It is expected to attract up to 100,000 visitors to the city. The Tate, which runs the Turner Prize, said showing it outside London would “attract new audiences around the country and bring the prize to a wider and more diverse audience outside the capital. “The Foyle MP Mark Durkan said the Turner Prize would be a great boost to tourism in the city. “It is fantastic news, and hopefully a sign of things to come,”.The Irish curator Declan McGonagle, who was himself nominated for the Turner Prize in 1987, said it was an “exceptional” opportunity for the city, Derry has a strong history of contemporary art”. McGonagle who is also the acting chair of the Culture Company (which is running the City of Culture) was the curator of the Orchard Gallery which put Derry on the international art map. “I saw Anthony Gormley’s now famous ‘Field’ there. Thousands of tiny figures, a terracotta army staring up at me. All those eyes, I’ll never forget it, unsettling and compelling. I had to really stop myself from diving headlong into them! In 1987”, Gormley, who would go on to create the iconic Angel of the North, also made three cruciform figures for the city walls. His grandfather’s from Derry and the double-sided figures were one of his first public art projects. One of the cruciform now stands outside the Millennium Forum. The other two are in private collections in the USA, but I’m told that Derry City Council, with Gormley, are working on getting the three reunited in Derry for 2013. The Turner Prize 2010 is now on show at Tate Britain until 3 January. On 6 December the prize will be announced live on channel four.

 

 

Tags

,