Turner Prize nominees urge panel to split the award, jury nods

Four artists in the United Kingdom have urged the prestigious Turner Prize's panel to share this year's award between them. Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Tai Shani, and Oscar Murillo got together to request the judges of Turner Prize not to choose any of them as a single winner. The judges agreed to their request and announced the quartet as the winner in Tuesday's ceremony. 

The winners

The four artists sent a joint letter to the panel of the Turner prize asking them to consider awarding the prize as collective. The letter said "in a world that is divided by politics and has isolated people and communities, we urge you to consider awarding the award to four of us and not choose a single winner."

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According to a press release on its official website, the jury said, "At our meeting today, we were presented with the letter from the artists and unanimously took the decision to agree to their request. We are honoured to be supporting this bold statement of solidarity and collaboration in these divided times. Their symbolic act reflects the political and social poetics that we admire and value in their work."

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Every year, the jury changes and this year's jury members were Alessio Antoniolli, Director, Gasworks & Triangle Network; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom Gallery and Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths; Victoria Pomery, Director, Turner Contemporary; and Margate and Charlie Porter, writer. The jury was chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain.

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The four artists will share the £40,000 prize between them. Edward Enninful, editor of Vogue magazine opened the envelope and surprised everyone when he announced that the award will be shared between the four artists. Turner Prize is a prestigious art award based out of Britain and is named after the famous English painter JMW Turner. 

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