Our daily round-up of news from the art world
Kader Attia wins the Marcel Duchamp Prize | Paris-born artist Kader Attia has been awarded this year’s prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize – often described as France’s answer to the Turner Prize. Attia beat Yto Barrada, Ulla Von Brandenburg and Barthélémy Toguo to the €35,000 award. Work by all four shortlisted artists can be seen until 29 January 2017 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which oversees the prize in collaboration with the International Diffusion of French Art. Each of them, The Art Newspaper notes, has a dual cultural identity, in what has been interpreted as a deliberate statement against rising nationalistic sentiment in the country. To read our interview with Kader Attia, click here.
Edinburgh’s Inverleith House gallery to close due to financial pressures | The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh has announced that its celebrated contemporary art gallery, Inverleith House, is to close its doors this weekend after 30 years. The organisation cited budgetary concerns, explaining that the closure ‘will remove the various inevitable financial risks attached to running a high-profile gallery’ and allow it to focus on its ‘core mission’ of botanical research, conservation and education.
Knoedler trial: Ann Freedman settles lawsuit with Frank Fertitta | A settlement has been reached between former director of the Knoedler Gallery, Ann Freedman, and billionaire collector Frank Fertitta, concluding the eighth of ten lawsuits brought against the gallery following revelations that it had sold almost $70m in art that turned out to be fake. Fertitta filed the suit in April 2014, alleging that the gallery had knowingly sold him a forgery of a Mark Rothko for $7.2m in 2008. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Cuban activist artist Tania Bruguera ‘stands for president’ | In a video that the artist has described as ‘more of a performance than a true campaign’, Tania Bruguera has proposed herself as a presidential candidate for Cuba’s 2018 elections, and asked other Cubans to follow suit. Her statement, or artwork, was premiered last weekend at the Creative Time Summit in Washington DC, and is intended as a ‘civic exercise’ to encourage people to question how power is awarded and enacted in Cuba.