On 18 August, the XIII MAVI / BHP Minera Escondida Contemporary Young Art Prize award ceremony was held at the Museum of Visual Arts of Santiago (MAVI), in which the artist Laura Galaz (Santiago, 1984) won the first place. The ceremony also inaugurated the exhibition with the finalists of the contest, which will remain open to the public until 21 October.
Artist Carolina Muñoz won the Second Prize for her piece Bosque Muerto [Dead Forest]. 'It's an artwork composed of two pieces, a painting and an object. The large-format painting portrays the object in a playful act as part of a kind of performance and installation that takes place on a plinth in an exhibition space', Ms Muñoz explains.
The Prize, which has been awarded since 2006 as a result of the alliance between MAVI and BHP Minera Escondida, has the goal of supporting new talents in the visual arts, and since its creation it has been a platform that shows the state of young art in the Chilean scene . The finalists' exhibition, which includes 48 pieces from painting to sculpture and installation, is intended as a space to visualise and spread the work of emerging Chilean artists, as well as a stage to project their works in the professional medium of the visual arts.
[Excerpt, original publication in Spanish]
