Controversy

The jury of the seventh Huayu Youth Award announced on December 14 at Art Sanya that none of the ten shortlisted artists would be receiving the main prize. Chairperson of the jury and M+ Sigg senior curator Pi Li explained that the ten artists’ presentations for the competition still needed time “to develop and improve.” Instead, Hsu Che-Yu and Pei-Hsuan Wang were both conferred a Special Jury Prize, though Hsu rejected his award on December 18. The finalists claimed that the judges’ stated reasons for not choosing a winner were neither clear nor convincing enough. They were also angered by the limited timeframe and budget with which they had to produce works for the award. In response, a group calling itself United Motion, including six of the 10 shortlisted artists and other practitioners, penned an open letter, stating that they hope the turn of events will prompt discussions on not just the purpose of prizes but “the fair wages of art workers, the health hazards of the work environment, [and] gender and privilege issues on a larger scale.”