Having supported Frieze Projects between 2011 and 2013, the Emdash Award is relaunching on Friday (6 November) with a performance by Nástio Mosquito at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The award will now focus exclusively on performance and time-based art—the only prize to do so in Europe, according to Andrea Dibelius, the Austrian collector who founded the Emdash Foundation.
“There’s a lack of funding for performance because it’s harder to sell, but visionary developments are being made in this area, especially in terms of technology,” Dibelius says. “Foundations should support things that are under-recognised.”
Since parting ways with Frieze Projects, the Emdash Foundation has worked on a commission with Peter Liversidge at the Whitechapel Gallery in east London and supported the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Dibelius plans to keep collaborating with museums and institutions to give “bigger platforms and more credibility” to the artists supported by the Emdash Award. The new award has expanded its remit to include emerging artists of all ages and nationalities; it was originally given to artists under the age of 35 living outside the UK.
Mosquito’s one-off site-specific performance at the ICA, The Age I Don’t Remember, combines song, spoken word, movement and visual projections and is the Angolan artist’s first solo project in London. The first winner of the Emdash Award in its new format will be announced in spring 2016.