Nominees for the 2024 Marcel Duchamp Prize

The ADIAF – host organization of the annual Marcel Duchamp Prize (a key event in France’s Contemporary art sphere) – announced its 4-artist shortlist for 2024 last week at Artcurial. Endowed with 90,000 euros, including a prize of 35,000 euros for the winner (to be announced on 17 October 2024), this award puts the nominated artists in the spotlight via an exhibition of their works at the Pompidou Center as of 1 october. The artists on this years’ shortlist are Abdelkader Benchamma, Gaëlle Choisne, Noémie Goudal and the duo Detanico & Lain.

Abdelkader BENCHAMMA (1975)

Represented by the Templon gallery (Paris) and adn galeria (Barcelona)

Born in 1975 in Mazamet (France), Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Paris and Montpellier where he trained in Fine Arts. His preferred medium is black and white drawing, whose lines often stretch beyond the designated support (canvas, paper, etc.). Spirited and dynamic, his drawings often step out of the frame to take on their own life in situ.

Inspired by literature, philosophy, astrophysics and esoteric reflections, his works create visual scenarios that question our relationship to reality by probing the boundaries of the invisible.

Gaëlle CHOISNE (b.1985)

Represented by the Air de Paris gallery

Born in 1985 to a Haitian mother and Breton father, Gaëlle Choisne lives and works in Paris and London. A graduate of the Lyon school of Fine Art, Choisne has worked with various institutions in ‘alternative’ and collective projects, particularly in Haiti. Her installations combine esoteric Creole traditions, myths and popular cultures and her exhibitions are often designed as spaces for sociability and collective work. The artist is inspired by the occult, taxonomy, the meeting of different cultures, the confrontation of old traditions and globalized cultures, spirituality and popular practices.

Awarded the Aware Women Art prize in 2021, she was appointed by Lorna Simpson to form the 2023 “Mentor and Young Talent” duo of Reiffers Art Initiatives and exhibited her work during an exhibition at the Acacias Art Center during Paris + by Art Basel.

She also participated, in 2015, in the Havana International Biennial and the Lyon International Biennial, and in 2017 in the Sharjah Biennial, Beirut Tamawuj Act II, and the Curitiba Biennial, in Brazil.

Noémie GOUDAL (1984)

Represented by the Edel Assanti gallery (London)

A graduate of Central Saint Martins (graphic design) and the Royal College of Art (master in photography) in London, Noémie Goudal works with photography, video and installations. Her poetic photography integrates ambitious architectural structures (domes, towers, etc.) within virgin landscapes to create illusions of landscapes conducive to daydreaming.

The artist says she is influenced by the work of contemporary choreographers like Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Pina Bausch but also by authors such as Haruki Murakami and Andreas Volwahsen (who penned Cosmic Architectures in India).

Her photographs have been included in sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s London where they fetch between $10,000 and $15,000 on average.

Angela & Rafael DETANICO & LAIN (XX-XXI)

Represented by the Martine Aboucaya gallery, Paris, and LMNO, Brussels

The duo – a trained semiologist-linguist and a graphic designer-typographer – have worked together since 1996. Of Franco-Brazilian nationality, the duo has established itself on the artistic scene via videos, sounds and visual works, murals and constructions / installations mixing texts, maps and quotes.

Imbued with semiology, their work draws its source from the world of graphics and communication, the codes of which they subtly subvert to question our perceptions and the construction of our benchmarks. The role of language, the notions of time and space are at the heart of their work through the implementation of rigorous systems.

Among the big names who have received the Marcel Duchamp Prize in the past, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Laurent Grasso, Tatiana Trouvé, Mircea Cantor, and Kader Attia have all established themselves as artists with international audiences and are all sought after by major collectors.

Artprice is a patron of ADIAF