FIAC Paris awards Marcel Duchamp Prize to contemporary artist Latifah Echakhch

The Prix Marcel Duchamp is an annual award given to a young artist and is organized by the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) in collaboration with the Centre Georges Pompidou. This year’s winner, Moroccan artist Latifah Echakhch, was announced today at the closing of FIAC Paris, the most concentrated event on the French calendar as far as the contemporary art market is concerned. The winner receives a cash prize and also a fund to produce an exhibition of their work in Paris at the modern art museum Centre Georges Pompidou.

The prize is named after the artist Marcel Duchamp, one of the main artists who helped define the plastic arts in the early twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture and most recognizable for his submission of one of his “readymades” or found objects, Fountain (a urinal) to the Salon of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917. In this type of exhibition the pieces were not selected by jury, and all pieces submitted were displayed. The show committee, however, found that the urinal was not art and rejected it from the show causing an almighty uproar that put Duchamp’s name on everyone’s lips – which didn’t do him any harm in the long run and goes to confirm that there’s no such as bad publicity.

Congratulations to the winner and to all the artists who participated. We are looking forward to the exhibition of Latifah Echakhch at the Pompidou.

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