In the year 2000, the ADIAF (Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l’Art Français) created the Prix Marcel Duchamp. By honouring a French artist or an artist living in France, active in the fields of plastic and visual arts and representative of their generation, the ADIAF aimed to raise the profile of French artistic creativity on the international scene.
A hugely successful initiative, the Prix Marcel Duchamp has become a reference in the field of contemporary art. Over the years, the artistic practices of the laureates and nominees – four in total each year – have come to form a unique panorama of contemporary creativity in France, in all its vitality and diversity.
The Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne accompanies this prize, which has also been supported by private collectors since its founding. Since 2016, this public partnership has been reinforced through the decision to grant each of the nominated artists a personal exhibition at the Centre Pompidou.
Kapwani Kiwanga has been awarded the 2020 Prix Marcel Duchamp for her installation Flowers for Africa, a series of floral compositions recalling those created for the diplomatic ceremonies marking the independence of African nations. Ambivalent testaments to these landmark historical moments, these reconstitutions, based on archival photographs, prompt a broader reflection on time. Kapwani Kiwanga was born in Canada in 1978 and lives and works in France.
