Artist and beekeeper who highlights eco crisis plans to spend £40,000 award on building cultural centre in Peru
An artist and beekeeper from a remote corner of the Andes has won one of the UK’s most prestigious contemporary arts awards and plans to spend the £40,000 prize on building a cultural centre in the Peruvian mountains.
Antonio Paucar was declared the winner of the biennial Artes Mundi prize after presenting work ranging from a spiral made of alpaca wool to a video of him writing a poem – in his own blood – about the environmental crisis facing his region as he sits at a table high in the mountains.
The idea of the Artes Mundi prize, which is based in Wales, is to highlight the work of talented but largely unrecognised artists from around the globe and take their pieces around the country. The work of six artists is being shown at five galleries dotted across Wales.
Speaking to the Guardian in Cardiff before the prize ceremony, Paucar said: “I didn’t expect it. The journey of an artist is very difficult. For me this kind of recognition is very important for my region, my country, my culture. It gives me strength to continue developing new projects.”
