British artist Rory Pilgrim has won the Netherlands’ Prix de Rome, which honors cultural producers under the age of forty. The $44,000 award, which also comes with a residency at the American Academy in Rome, was presented by the Dutch minister of education, culture, and science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, at a ceremony attended by Queen Máxima on October 31.

Pilgrim received the award for his new fifty-five-minute film The Undercurrent, 2019–, which is centered on a group of young people in the city of Boise, Idaho, and how their personal hardships are connected to their greater societal concerns, which range from climate change to gender equality. The prize jury praised the collaborative nature of the work and the artist’s ability to engage with his subjects when they chose him as this year’s award recipient.

The jury was made up of Lonnie van Brummelen, a visual artist and winner of the 2005 Prix de Rome; Amira Gad, the artistic director of Lehmann Maupin, London; Peter Gorschlüter, the director of the Museum Folkwang, Essen; Yasmijn Jarram, a curator at the GEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague; and the visual artist Frank Koolen. Chaired by Valentijn Byvanck, the director of the Marres, House of Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, the jury judged finalists based on works that were created within a five-month period.

Nominated by Anke Bangma and Louwrien Wijers, Pilgrim currently has work on view alongside installations by the shortlisted artists Esiri Erheriene-Essi and Femke Herregraven, as well as the artist duo Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The prize exhibition will remain open until March 22, 2020.