LAURENT TIXADOR – WINNER OF THE 2013 COAL ART AND ENVIRONMENT AWARD

The COAL Art and Environment Prize 2013 was awarded yesterday to the artist Laurent Tixador for his project Architecture Transitoire. It was chosen by a jury of personalities from the fields of contemporary art, sustainable development and the environment, from among ten nominated projects. The Coal Art and Environment Prize, whose theme this year was Adaptation, involved the participation of over 200 artists from more than 30 countries.

The winning artist: Laurent Tixador for his project Architecture Transitoire

Designing one’s habitat in a given environment starting from nothing, relying only on one’s physical strength and ingenuity, is the starting point of the new challenges that Laurent Tixador never ceases to take up with his Transitory Architectures. Whether they are established in a pasture, a disused barracks, a granite chaos or a grove, they are each time the opportunity to experiment with pre-technological situations, to engage a mode of deceleration and to put into perspective the condition of the man of the 21st century. It is the environment, whether natural or not, that defines the style of these architectures and forces the body and mind to adapt to its demands. Laurent Tixador will, thanks to the Coal Prize, continue these explorations, where experience and the ability to seize all opportunities prove to be the only necessary luggage. This process appears as a metaphor for one of the constants of humanity on a global scale: humans forge the environment according to their needs rather than adapting to it.

The Coal Prize Jury 2013

Claude d’Anthenaise, Chief Curator of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Judith Benhamou-Huet, Art Critic and Curator, Patrick degeorges, Head of Emerging and Strategic Issues at the DEB, Ministry of Ecology, David Edwards, Professor at Harvard University, uSA and Founder of the Laboratory, Jennifer Flay, Artistic Director of the FiAC, Thomas Grenon, General Director of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Raphaël Ménard, Director of prospective, Groupe Egis, Chiara Parisi, Director of cultural programs at the Monnaie de Paris, Jacques Rocher, Director of the Fondation Yves rocher, Gilles Tiberghien, Philosopher were the members of the jury for this 4th edition of the Coal Prize.

The Coal Art and Environment Award

Since 2010, the Coal Art and Environment Prize, with an endowment of 10,000 euros, rewards each year an artist’s project related to ecology. The objective is to encourage contemporary artists to take up major societal and environmental issues and to participate in the emergence of a new culture of ecology. The Coal Prize is placed under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, and the National Centre for the Plastic Arts. It is supported by the Yves Rocher Foundation, the Egis group and a partnership with Le Laboratoire, Hédonie and the New York agency.

Discover all the projects of this last edition of the Coal Prize: Catalogue Prix COAL 2013