The Japan Art Association, Japan’s oldest cultural foundation, announced the 2023 Praemium Imperiale laureates.
Diébédo Francis Kéré, 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, won the Award in Architecture, the artist Olafur Eliasson won the Award in Sculpture.
The Praemium Imperiale is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. Since its inauguration in 1988, it has become a mark of the arts.
Six nomination committees, each chaired by an International Advisor, propose candidates in five fields: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film.
The artists are recognized and awarded for their achievements, for the impact they have had internationally on the arts, and for their role in enriching the global community.
PRAEMIUM IMPERIALE - Japanese Awards for the Arts - Architecture
Diébédo Francis Kéré (Born April 10, 1965 / Gando, Burkina Faso)
At the Kéré Architecture studio, Berlin, May 2023 ©The Japan Art Association / The Sankei Shimbun
By combining local materials and skills with innovative design and smart engineering solutions, while maintaining a focus on working with local communities, Diébédo Francis Kéré has transformed architecture not only in Burkina Faso, but also across Africa and beyond. Kéré had to leave home when he was only 7 in order to be able to attend school. Studying in dark, hot, unventilated classrooms instilled in him the desire to make better buildings and his career as architect. He studied in Germany and established the Kéré Foundation to raise money for his ambition to design and build a school for his birthplace. In all his projects in Africa, Kéré has focused on providing simple, achievable plans for buildings that utilise the skills and energies of the local community – employing traditional building materials and marrying them with modern design. Kéré’s designs weave together elements of traditional African design, with modern architecture, as revealed in the colours of Coachella’s Sarbalé Ke, “the House of Celebration” (2019), the wooden patterns of Xylem (2019) at Tippet’s Rise, USA, and his constant referencing of trees – of their central role in providing shade and a social centre (Serpentine Pavilion 2017).
Past Architecture Laureates include:
James Stirling, Frank Gehry, Kenzo Tange, Renzo Piano, Tadao Ando, Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Peter Zumthor, Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, Rafael Moneo, Christian de Portzamparc, Glenn Murcutt, SANAA.
PRAEMIUM IMPERIALE - Japanese Awards for the Arts - Sculpture
Olafur Eliasson (Born 1967, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, May 2023 ©The Japan Art Association / The Sankei Shimbun
Color, light, water, ice; these are just some of the natural elements that Olafur Eliasson skilfully employs for his thoughtful, wide-ranging artworks; works designed to alter perception, raise awareness while creating a sense of wonder. The range of his work is extensive and diverse, including sculpture, installations, paintings, photography and video. Early masterpieces, such as Beauty, have an ephemeral, poetical existence that relies on the viewer for life. Much of his inspiration has come from experiencing nature as a boy in Denmark and more especially, in Iceland, and are at the heart of his motivation for challenging global environmental issues though his art.
The Weather Project (2003) in London’s Tate Modern and Ice Watch (Copenhagen, Paris, London) are just two illustrations of Eliasson’s inventive, considered and beautiful works.
In 2019 he was appointed UNDP’s Ambassador for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Past Sculpture Laureates include:
Arnaldo Pomodoro, Anthony Caro, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman, Tony Cragg, Richard Long, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, El Anatsui, Fujiko Nakaya, James Turrell, Ai Weiwei.
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