SERPENTINE GALLERY ANNOUNCES ART PRIZE WINNER

The Serpentine Gallery awarded Colombian collective Helena Producciones its new art prize, Visible 2011, which is worth approximately $32,000, in an awards ceremony hosted last week, reports Ermanno Rivetti of the Art Newspaper. The prize was created by Italian artist and art activist Michelangelo Pistoletto, in collaboration with the Fondazione Zegna. Visible is “dedicated to artists and collectives who aim to bring about responsible social change through their artistic practices” and “set firmly against the idea of art for art’s sake.”

Rivetti notes that the jury was an “all-star lineup” including Michelangelo Pistoletto himself; Ute Meta Bauer, the associate professor and director of the visual arts program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Hans Ulrich Obrist, the director of international projects at the Serpentine Gallery, Okwui Enwezor; the director of the Haus der Kunst, Munich; and Andrea Zegna, the cofounder of the Fondazione Zegna.

“We were especially interested in projects with longevity and with specific social goals,” said Obrist. “We live in tumultuous times and have seen many examples of artists with a strong civic imagination at work in the recent political and social uprisings around the world.”