Merrill Lynch backs Worldwide Arts Initiative with Sponsorship
31 May 2007
Artes Mundi – the biennial international contemporary visual arts initiative launched in 2004 – has today announced a new sponsorship from Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. It is to sponsor the global search and selection process that will see eight of the best emerging contemporary artists from across the world exhibiting in Cardiff next year.
The exciting international show will unify around the Artes Mundi theme of humanity, the human form and the human condition. One of the artists will be chosen to receive the £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize which was previously awarded to the Chinese artist Xu Bing in 2004 and to the Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila in 2006.
Artes Mundi has also announced today that the two independent Selectors for the 2008 exhibition are Olabisi Silva from Nigeria, who co-curated the Dakar Biennale in 2006, and Isabel Carlos from Portugal, who was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Biennale in 2004. Their task is to draw up a shortlist of eight artists, starting from over 400 nominations submitted by leading curators, artists and arts professionals from more than 65 countries, plus their own personal nominations and a series of studio visits.
Lucy Stout, Head of Development for Artes Mundi said “This sponsorship from Merrill Lynch which covers the costs of the Selectors’ world travel and research is great news for many reasons. Clearly the financial support is important to us but the choice Merrill Lynch has made, as an established global brand, to position itself alongside Artes Mundi also helps draw attention to our international ambition and scope”.
Nick Tucker, Market Leader for UK and Ireland, Merrill Lynch GPC EMEA added “Merrill Lynch is proud to be sponsoring Artes Mundi’s mission to select contemporary artists from around the world. The project celebrates creative diversity and has the potential to open up thinking and create debate. It is a bold and exciting initiative launched from Wales, a part of the UK that is increasingly important to us.”
This year’s shortlisted artists will be announced at the end of September 2007 and will present their work at the third Artes Mundi Exhibition at National Museum Cardiff, Wales from 15th March to 8th June 2008. The Prize will be awarded in April 2008.
Notes to editors
Merrill Lynch is one of the world\'s leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 37 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.6 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Merrill Lynch owns approximately half of BlackRock, one of the world’s largest publicly traded investment management companies with more than $1 trillion in assets under management. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.
Artes Mundi is an international contemporary visual arts initiative, committed to recognising and showing some of the most exciting, emerging artists from around the world and celebrating visual culture within an international context. It highlights how artists comment on the world from very different cultural perspectives and gathers work that speaks about humanity, the human form and the human condition.
Artes Mundi was founded by William Wilkins CBE (Chairman) and Tessa Jackson (Artistic Director) in 2002. It was established with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government, the City of Cardiff, Arts Council of Wales, BBC Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, all of whom remain as partners.
Isabel Carlos is a free-lance art curator and critic based in Lisbon. She was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Biennale in 2004 On Reason and Emotion and the curator of the Portuguese Pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale, presenting a one person show by Helena Almeida. She was the Founder and Deputy Director of the Instituto de Arte Contemporanea (IAC) in Lisbon between 1996 and 2001.
Olabisi Silva is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, a new visual arts initiative that will launch later this year. She was one of several international curators responsible for the artistic content of the Dakar Biennale in 2006 and in 2007 she will curate Telling, an exhibition of contemporary Finnish photography at the 7th African photography Biennale in Bamako (November 2007) and co-curate the inaugural exhibition of contemporary African Art at the National Museum Mali, Bamako (September 2007)
For further information:
Annie Bacon
Artes Mundi
+44 (0) 7974 755 164
anniebacon@mac.com
Sara-Louise Boyes
Media Relations
Merrill Lynch
0207 996 3557
saralouise_boyes@ml.com