Edition 2021

Els Dietvorst uses dialogue, experimentation, and intuition as her primary artistic strategies. Since the 1990s, she has been driven by social issues such as migration, racism, and climate change. Dietvorst reflects on the ‘condition humaine’, bringing major themes such as life and death, fear, alienation and desire, and the concept of the ‘outsider’ into her work. She employs a wide range of media: sculptures and installations, drawings, writings, and visual installations.

The jury was particularly impressed by the radical way in which Els Dietvorst has developed and built her practice since the 1990s. They were also struck by the coherence between her body of work and her personal identity. Rejecting the classical, commercial, and institutional art circuits, Dietvorst’s career is living proof that an independent oeuvre is not only possible but can also be of immense value.

Els Dietvorst lives and works in Duncormick, Ireland. She graduated from the Sint-Lucas Institute in Antwerp and obtained a Master’s degree from the Sint-Lucas Institute in Brussels. Her work has been shown in art institutions and festivals such as Kaaitheater Brussels, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, M HKA Antwerp, Mu.ZEE Ostend, and the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 2017, Dietvorst received the Evens Art Prize, and in 2018, she won the award for Anthropology and Sustainable Development at the Jean Rouch International Film Festival in Paris with her documentary I Watched the White Dogs of the Dawn. She is currently a researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and is preparing a PhD at the University of Antwerp.