25 January 2010
I love Manchester
..says Northern Art Prize winner
CONGRATULATIONS to MMU Professor Pavel Büchler who has won the Northern Art Prize – dubbed the north’s answer to the Turner.
Declaring his love for Manchester’s buzzing art scene, Pavel characteristically professed his dislike of art competitions after scooping the £16,500 prize on Friday.
The Czech-born artist who is based at Manchester School of Art said: “I really don’t think that we should be put in a position where art is treated as a competitive sport.
“It is good to see so many people here and so much interest, but perhaps equally a reason to despair.” Everyone who took part deserved the prize, he said.
Eclipse
Pavel Büchler, 58, has been an influential figure in British art for many years since moving from Prague to establish a base in Manchester.
His entry for the prize, an installation named Eclipse, takes up the largest of four rooms at Leeds City Art Gallery. Based partly on poetry and partly on science education, it uses nine projectors from the 1950s to cast interlocking shadows from a range of balls and other spherical objects.
A second work, You Don’t Love Me, combines audio tape and a recorder with a bottle of whisky, making an analogy between bootleg alcohol and an illegal recording of a live gig.
Büchler acknowledged the influence on his work of having a base in the north – the one criterion for artists entering the prize. He told The Guardian: “I’m an old man and London is far too busy for me. I love Manchester. Of all the regional cities I know, it has the least ‘regional’ attitude. Artists there are not chippy about the rest of the world.”
Influence
The judges said Büchler had been consistently influential to a huge amount of people throughout his career, both as a practitioner and teacher.
The Northern Art Prize is supported by Logistik, Leeds City Council, Arup and Leeds Metropolitan University. Art by the five finalists is on show at Leeds City Art Gallery until 21 February.
Pavel Büchler speaks to the Guardian’s Martin Wainwright www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/22/pavel-buchler-northern-art-prize
