Leslie Thorton, Marta Scoczen i Younes Ben Slimane, Premis Loop 2022

The Rodeo gallery (London/Piraeus) with the piece Cut From Liquid to Snake (2018, 26.13”) by the artist Leslie Thornton (USA, 1951) was the winner of the Loop Award that was announced this past Wednesday November 16

In this work, Thornton evokes the instability on which humanity operates through a combination of voices and emotions – from coldness to melancholy and anxiety – through radically different images and textures. This work is part of his experimental film practice, which seeks to explore the production of meaning through the media. On the other hand, the LOOP Fair Acquisition Award was also awarded to the young Polish artist Marta Skoczeń (Poland, 1994) for her work House Without a Key (2020, 5'45''), presented by Galerie Dohyang Lee (Paris / Seoul).

In this short film, the artist creates a portrait of a woman facing confinement, torn between the desire for freedom and obligations. By analogy, the footage evokes a reflection on femininity by delving into the intimacy of a young woman immersed in an internal battle between her obligations linked to the materiality of the house that enslaves her, and the desire for emancipation .

The work, acquired by Screen Projects, will become part of the LOOP Collection and will be deposited at the MACBA. As far as the MACBA-Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona Acquisition Award goes to the artist Younes Ben Slimane (Tunisia, 1992) for his piece We Knew How Beautiful They Were, These Islands (2021, 21') , presented by the gallery Le Violon Bleu / Blue Wind Projects (Tunisia).

Made in the desert landscapes of southern Tunisia, the work presents a dark and enigmatic ritual in which a solitary figure moves through a desert cemetery. The objects left behind speak their silent language, evoking melancholy and exile.

The work, acquired by the MACBA Foundation, will become part of the museum's collection. The jury for this edition was international and was formed by: Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director, MACBA-Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona), represented by Claudia Segura (Curator of exhibitions and collection MACBA-Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona), Dirk Snauwaert (Director, WIELS, Brussels), Benjamin Weil (Director, Modern Art Center – Fundação Gulbenkian, Portugal) and Daniela Zyman (Artistic Director, TBA21, Vienna and Madrid). The Loop 2022 fair was held from November 15 to 17 in the rooms of Hotel Almanac in Barcelona after last year's edition was held in La Pedrera-Casa Milà in Barcelona.