Doug Aitken
The Frontier Art Prize is a new contemporary art award that supports an artist of international stature pursuing bold projects that challenge the boundaries of knowledge and experience to reimagine the future of humanity. An initiative of the World Frontiers Forum, the Prize encourages aesthetic exploration at the crossroads of biology, ecology, architecture, food, communications, transportation, human health, biotechnology, design and physics that changes how we think and live. Founded by David Edwards (Le Laboratoire) and Bridgitt Evans (VIA Art Fund), the Prize is awarded annually by an international jury. In addition to the founders, this year’s jury includes:
Jennifer Flay (FIAC)
Evelyn Hankins ( HirshhornMuseum)
Laurent Le Bon (Musée national Picasso-Paris)
Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery)
J.D. Talasek (National Academy of Sciences).
The first Frontier Art Prize recipient, Doug Aitken will be honored at a dinner on 18 October, the opening night of the FIAC Art Fair, at the Musée national Picasso-Paris. The artist will receive an award of $100,000 as seed support for a contemporary art dream.
In speaking of the award, VIA Art Fund President and Founder Bridgitt Evans said, “We are thrilled to announce Doug Aitken as the inaugural recipient of The Frontier Art Prize. As an artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken epitomizes the radical, pioneering spirit that we hope to celebrate with this award. Doug’s ambitious artistic endeavors encourage us to imagine the future while simultaneously slowing us down to critically rethink our present. He is an innovator in his field, one who embraces uncertainty and experimentation, who broadly defines creativity and culture, and who invites collective dialogue.”
World Frontiers Forum founder, Le Laboratoire founder and Harvard faculty member David Edwards, added, “Aesthetics matter more today than they ever have, and nowhere as deeply as they do at the frontiers of an ambiguous tomorrow. The World Frontiers Forum, which aims to encourage frontier creation that improves the human condition, is thrilled to announce with VIA Art Fund this new contemporary art prize, and to celebrate Doug Aitken as our inaugural pioneering artist.”