Independent curator and cultural producer Koyo Kouoh, has been announced as one of this year’s laureates of the Swiss Grand Award for Art. Also known as the Grand Prix d’Art or The Meret Oppenheim Prize, she receives this award worth CHF40,000 ($42,000), alongside Marc Bauer (artist) and Barbara Buser (architect). The laureates were selected in late 2019.
The Swiss Grand Award for Art/Prix Meret Oppenheim was founded in 2001 to honour and recognise individuals whose work in the arts, which includes architecture, criticism, curating and research, have been of relevance in the Swiss contemporary art and architecture.
Koyo Kouoh was born in Cameroon and grew up in Switzerland, until she relocated to Dakar, Senegal in the nineties. The focus of her work is on redefining the contemporary African art by continuously engaging with actors in various countries through research and curatorial work. In 2008, Kouoh founded the RAW Material Company and in 2019, she was appointed director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, in Cape Town.
The Swiss Art Awards exhibition, which normally takes place as a feature of Art Basel, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hence, the works of the finalists of the Swiss Grand Award for Art will be presented online from August to October.
The winners will be honoured together with those of the Swiss Grand Prix for Design at an event this autumn.
Cover image: Koyo Kouoh. Source: theculturenewspaper.com
Trailer of the portrait of curator Koyo Kouoh, laureate of the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim 2020. Director: Ramòn Giger. Source: swissartawards.ch