ARAMBAR/VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Yesterday, the Prix Net Art named its 2015 winner: Constant Dullaart, a Dutch artist known for his conceptual work that deals with the way software and technology sometimes seem to perform on their own. Dullaart is the second winner of the Prix Net Art, which is held in co-operation with the Chronus Art Center, Rhizome, and the Tsinhua University Art and Science Media Lab. The jurors for this year’s prize were journalist Josephine Bosma, Whitney curator Chrissie Iles, and critic Domenico Quaranta. The prize comes with a $10,000 award.
In the past, Dullaart has staged a number of interventions using Internet-based mediums that investigate the effects of image-processing technology. Having organized projects in which he ponders the death of the URL, and in which art-world Instagram accounts get an even 100,000 followers through various purchases, the young Dutch artist has gotten a lot of hype in the past few years for his attention-grabbing work. Dullaart is represented in London by Carroll/Fletcher, in Paris by XPO Gallery, and in Berlin by Future Gallery.
The Prix Net Art jurors also gave an award of distinction to the German collective Weise7, made up of artists Julian Oliver, Gordan Savicic, Bengt Sjolen, Danja Vasiliev, and others. Weise7 has become known less for producing objects than setting up experimental spaces in which artists can become educated about networks and hacking. Through this secondary prize, Weise7 has been awarded $5,000.