Assemble Wins the Turner Prize 2015, Tramway, Glasgow

The winner of the Turner Prize 2015 was announced at a special ceremony at Tramway, Glasgow, in partnership with Tate, last night. London-based collective Assemble has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious award by a jury of leading art industry specialists. This year’s £25,000 prize was presented by artist, musician and songwriter Kim Gordon during a live broadcast on Channel 4. Assemble engages with communities to promote regeneration, city planning and development in opposition to corporate gentrification, and the group was chosen for its various collaborations including an ongoing project with local residents and others in the Granby Four Streets, Liverpool.

Working across the fields of art, design and architecture, Assemble creates alternative models to suggest how societies can work. Set up in 2010, the collective, made up of 18 members, seeks to address the disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made. For the exhibition at Tramway the group has recreated one of its workshops, which highlights the importance of artistic practice in being able to drive urgent issues in the post-industrial era. The collective’s architectural spaces and environments promote direct action in society and embrace a DIY sensibility. Assemble was nominated for the prize alongside artists Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers.

Established in 1984, the Turner Prize is awarded by Tate to a British artist under 50 years old who has exhibited outstanding work in the previous year. The prize, and its accompanying exhibition, seeks to promote and encourage public discussion of contemporary British art. This year’s jury, who applauded the strength of all nominated works, was comprised of Alistair Hudson, Director, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; Kyla McDonald, Artistic Director, Glasgow Sculpture Studios; Joanna Mytkowska, Director, Museum Sztuki Nowoczesnej; Jan Verwoert, critic and curator; and Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain.

Every other year the Turner Prize is held in an art-space outside of London. For the first time in its history, the award is being held at a venue in Scotland. Tramway, Glasgow, is a leading international art-space which commissions, produces and presents contemporary arts projects and has been at the heart of the changes that have seen Glasgow re-born as one of Europe’s leading centres for contemporary visual arts. The Turner Prize 2015 will be on display at Tramway until 17 January 2016.

The Turner Prize 2015, until 17 January 2016, Tramway, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow, G41 2PE.

For more, visit www.tramway.org.

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Credits
1. Assemble, Granby Four Streets.