Laura Lima. Photo: Harry Heuts.

Brazilian artist Laura Lima wins biggest international award for visual art in the Netherlands.

 
Maastricht February 15 2014-Today, the Bonnefantenmuseum announced that artist Laura Lima (1971, Governador Valadares, Brazil - Rio de Janeiro) is the winner of the Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art (BACA) 2014. The BACA consists of a sum of 50,000 Euros, a publication and a solo exhibition in the Bonnefantenmuseum in autumn 2014. This exhibition will be presented in the museum from 26 September 2014 to February 2015 and will then travel to the Museo de Arte Moderno Buenos Aires in Argentina in spring 2015. 

Laura Lima laureate Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art 2014 
The Bonnefantenmuseum has been presenting the BACA every two years since 2000. The award is a tribute to a living artist with an exceptional oeuvre and a demonstrable influence on other artists – a real artists' artist. The BACA 2014 was awarded unanimously to the Brazilian artist Laura Lima by the international selection committee for the 2014 edition, comprising: Alfred Pacquement (Honorary Director of the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris), Cristiana Tejo (independent curator, Recife), Ivo Mesquita (director of the Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo) Victoria Noorthoorn (director of the Museo de Arte Moderno Buenos Aires) and Stijn Huijts (director of the Bonnefantenmuseum). 

The selection committee had a difficult task, in view of the high level of visual art from Latin America. The committee praised the exceptional quality of Lima's work and her great influence on other artists. The expectation that the works will bring about an innovative dialogue with the Bonnefantenmuseum and its collection also played a role in the selection process. The committee is convinced that Laura Lima will develop a groundbreaking exhibition for the Bonnefantenmuseum. 

A theme that is central to Lima's work is her fascination for the complexity of social relationships and human behaviour. In this, a main role is played by humans and animals, which are often physically present in their sheer materiality and left in the open for someone to encounter. Her work has previously been shown in Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2013-14), Art's House, Melbourne, Australia (2013), the Ruhrtriennale, Essen (2012), the Lyon Biennale, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm and the Manchester Art Gallery (all in 2011). Laura Lima is also co-founder of, and adviser to the gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro.

Focus on Latin America 
In 2014, the BACA will be presented for the first time to an artist from Latin America. The deliberate choice of a Latin American BACA laureate for 2014 is consistent with the aim of the Bonnefantenmuseum's new directors to spotlight a variety of art histories by, for example, focusing more on artistic oeuvres from non-Western regions. Today's global economic and cultural dynamics mean that non-Western regions like Latin America and Asia are increasingly putting their mark on the international cultural discourse, and the Bonnefantenmuseum expressly wishes to reflect those developments within the scope of the BACA.

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