Antonio Paucar has gained the eleventh version of the UK artwork prize Artes Mundi, receiving £40,000 for his performances, sculptures and video works that draw on Andean tradition and his Peruvian heritage.
Paucar informed The Artwork Newspaper on the awards ceremony held at Amgueddfa Cymru-Nationwide Museum in Cardiff (15 January) that he plans to make use of the cash to transform his household house within the central highlands of Peru right into a museum and artwork college.
“Over the previous few years, I started restoring the deserted adobe home of my grandparents. You will need to me to safeguard the home and workshop of my ancestors. It appears equally applicable to me that this house be remodeled right into a small, impartial artwork college, provided that the closest and largest metropolis, Huancayo, doesn’t have an artwork college nor a museum of artwork,” he stated.
Six worldwide artists had been shortlisted for the prize which is held at venues throughout Wales. A gaggle present on the Amgueddfa Cymru-Nationwide Museum Cardiff (till 1 March) exhibiting works from every artist enhances in-depth solo shows at 4 accomplice venues: Mostyn, a public artwork gallery in Llandudno; Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Glynn Vivian Artwork Gallery, Swansea; and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
Paucar, who labored for a few years as a beekeeper in Peru, studied on the Universität der Künste Berlin. Works on present by the artist within the Artes Mundi exhibition in Cardiff embody the movie El Corazon de la Montaña(2018-19) which highlights ecological harm within the Huaytapallana mountain vary.
“Nature and the ecosystem [there] is being destroyed due to mining,” he stated. Requested if he considers himself an activist, he says: “I’m extra of an artist—[and considered] an activist as a result of I belong to a sure [Indigenous] group.” Utilizing his personal blood, Paucar wrote a sentence in his native language, Wanka Limay (also referred to as Quechua Wanka), which is proven alongside the movie. The translated textual content reads: “The center of the sacred mountains is weeping blood.”
One other work Energía espiral del Ayni (2025) includes a sculpture of alternating black and white woven alpaca wool and an accompanying video exhibiting how the woollen piece is made. The piece invitations guests to attach with an historic Andean idea contained within the phrase “Ayni” which relies on concepts round reciprocity and mutual alternate.
At Mostyn gallery, the video entitled Pirueta en la tierra de Llandudno (2025) information his barefoot stroll via the panorama of Llandudno. “We discovered a Celtic stone by probability [during the walk]. I left traces on the gallery wall with the soil collected throughout my stroll.”
“Paucar’s apply, alongside all different shows, aligns with Artes Mundi’s help of practices that exist exterior the pressures and prototypes of the artwork market whereas remaining dedicated to creative freedom and experimentation,” stated a press release from the jury of Artes Mundi 11 which incorporates the Senegalese curator Marie Helene Pereira.
One other short-listed artist, the Brisbane-based artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson, who’s exhibiting sculptural installations and a video at Chapter Arts Centre, was named the Derek Williams Belief Artes Mundi Buy Prize winner; a few of her featured works will subsequently be acquired by Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales.
Sancintya Mohini Simpson at Nationwide Museum Cardiff, 15 January 2026.
Polly Thomas
Simpson is a descendant of indentured labourers despatched from India to work on colonial sugar plantations in South Africa. She now makes use of sugar cane as a pigment, unpicking the complexities of migration, reminiscence, and trauma in her works.
Requested about the way forward for Artes Mundi, Nigel Prince, the director, stated: “The employees and trustees will shortly take a look at the professionals and cons of the pan-Wales exhibition mannequin. There are many optimistic indicators this time spherical; inside the first month we attracted a brand new viewers share of 35% throughout the venues exterior Cardiff. This degree of viewers engagement is nice to see. Artes Mundi was an outlier when it comes to its programming however that isn’t the case now.”
Prince provides that the prize can be contemplating including a global advisory board, which might “open up alternatives for help and shows additional afield”.
