ART & ENVIRONMENT PRIZE
In 2023, Lee Ufan Arles and Maison Guerlain have joined forces to create the Art & Environment Prize, which awards each year a project that focuses on the fruitful and multi-faceted relationship between artistic creation and the environment.
Selected from 381 entries by a jury of leading figures from the world of culture, chaired by Lee Ufan, the winner of this first edition is the artist Djabril Boukhenaïssi for his project on the theme of the disappearance of night.
ART & ENVIRONMENT PRIZE 2023 EDITION
PRIZE WINNER, DJABRIL BOUKHENAÏSSI
Djabril Boukhenaïssi is an emerging French artist who explores the concepts of disappearance and fragility. For the Art & Environment Prize, he is exploring the theme of the disappearance of night and its contemporary metamorphoses. Through painting and etching, he aims to evoke the night in a metaphorical way, playing on the contrasts between darkness and light, without ever explicitly showing the night.
Djabril Boukhenaïssi will be granted an artistic residency lasting six to eight weeks at Lee Ufan Arles, along with an exclusive production space located in the heart of the Arles region.
Following the residency, the artist's work will be showcased in an exhibition during the 2024 summer season at the MA Space of Lee Ufan Arles.
JURY AND PATRON
Lee Ufan, artist, chairman of the jury
Gabrielle Saint-Genis Rodriguez, President and CEO, Guerlain
Ann-Caroline Prazan, Director of Art, Culture, and Heritage, Guerlain
Alice Audoin, Member of the Sustainability Board, Guerlain
Esra Joo, Vice President, Lee Ufan Arles
Juliette Vignon, General Coordinator, Lee Ufan Arles
Alfred Pacquement, Honorary General Heritage Curator, Lee Ufan Arles
Philippe Dagen, art historian and researcher, patron of this inaugural edition
A COLLABORATION THAT HARMONIZES CREATION AND NATURE
ARTISTIC SUPPORT AND DIALOGUE
Since its inception, Guerlain has woven bridges with the arts, entrusting contemporary artists with their cases and bottles, organizing exhibitions, and creating artistic programs to support creativity.
This notion of artistic encounter and dialogue is fundamental to Lee Ufan, an internationally renowned artist.
With Lee Ufan Arles, an exhibition space spanning nearly 1000 square meters, his aim is to enrich the cultural offerings of the city of Arles in Provence, France by creating "a vibrant place, a living place, a place of sharing."
COMMITMENT TO ENVIRONMENT
The materials used by Lee Ufan for his works, such as stone and metal, invite man to change his habits and move towards harmonious coexistence with nature.
"I WANT TO BUILD A BRIDGE BETWEEN THIS INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ORIGINAL NATURE. AND MAKE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP. I CREATE A KIND OF TENSION BETWEEN THE MATERIALS, WHICH RESOLVES ITSELF INTO SERENITY - INTO PEACE. I'M LOOKING FOR BALANCE." Lee Ufan
Like Lee Ufan, Guerlain builds relationships with nature. Since 2007, the House has formalised its pioneering commitment to Nature, Au nom de la Beauté, and places its preservation at the heart of its actions.
MORE ABOUT LEE UFAN ARLES
THE ARTIST
Lee Ufan was born in Korea in 1936 and lives and works in Paris, New York and Japan. He is the artist theoretician of the avant-garde movement Mono-ha (""the school of things""), a Japanese artistic movement that developed in parallel with minimalist and radical movements. Mono-ha is often considered to be very close to the attitudes and choices that nourished Arte Povera in Europe.
Lee Ufan's sculptures are presented as connections between stones or wood chosen from nature and industrial materials, while his painting tends towards a single sign, towards meditation and the evocation of emptiness.
THE FOUNDATION
In the heart of the Hôtel Vernon, a private mansion built between the 16th and 18th centuries, halfway between the Arenas and the Place du Forum, 1350 m² on three floors reveal the works of the painter and minimalist sculptor, as well as a bookshop, a store, mediation and reception areas.
