Chilean-born artist, activist and poet Cecilia Vicuña has been awarded the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, worth CHF 150,000.
Known for her large-scale installations made from unspun wool, Cecilia Vicuña’s practice explores themes including social justice and Indigenous cultures. She is the 23rd recipient of the European art prize, whose previous recipients include Maria Lassnig, Robert Frank and Cindy Sherman. Zarina Bhimji won the 2024 award.
‘I am truly delighted that we are honoring Cecilia Vicuña, an artist whose work possesses great visual power while addressing highly topical issues,’ said Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and member of the Foundation Board, in a press release.
‘Over the past decades, she has engaged intensively with the role of women in society, both in Latin America and more broadly. Equally urgently, she draws attention to the economic and ecological exploitation of our planet and repeatedly intervenes in current debates. There are very few artists who manage to do this with such poetic and enduring consistency as Cecilia Vicuña.’
Vicuña has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile.
The award ceremony will take place on Friday, 21 November at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
Read more: Sarah Jilani on Cecilia Vicuña’s Turbine Hall commission at Tate Modern, London.
