Louvre Abu Dhabi and Swiss watchmaking brand Richard Mille have launched a new annual exhibition with an aim to promote the works of emerging artists. One artist from the exhibition will receive $50000 as the Richard Mille art prize.
The new exhibition series, titled “Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here,” will be conducted via an open-call process for contemporary artists working in any media to submit proposals to show work in the museum’s Forum space. An international jury will then choose four to six artists to show in the exhibitions, and from those proposals, one winner will be chosen to receive the Richard Mille Art Prize.
The first winner will be announced in November after an inaugural edition to be titled “Memory, Time and Territory.” The show will run through March 2022. The first year’s theme, Memory, Time and Territory, asks artists to consider the enormous changes that the country has gone through since its founding, as well as personal stories and recollections, and ideas of the future. The first exhibition in the series will be open only to artists based in the United Arab Emirates and Emirati artists living abroad.
Applications are open until Tuesday August 31. A shortlist will be selected by a jury of international experts, and will be announced at a later date.
Richard Mille has committed to funding the cash prize for the first 10 years. In a statement, Peter Harrison, the company’s CEO, said, “As an avid art collector, I have long been inspired by the visionary perspectives brought to light by contemporary artists. … The Richard Mille Art Prize will redefine the benchmarks of contemporary creativity, with a goal to offer exceptional artists the opportunity to create a new dimension of their potential.”
Louvre Abu Dhabi director Manuel Rabaté said in a statement, “We aim to provide these artists with a highly visible platform from which to come together and showcase their work to both our community and the global audience. This initiative also represents a decisive step forward by Louvre Abu Dhabi into the arena of contemporary art, as we further expand on our mission to shine a light on the cultural connections which unite us all.”
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