Exhibition of the nominated artists for the 2014 edition :
Théo MERCIER, Julien PRÉVIEUX, Florian et Michaël QUISTREBERT, Evariste RICHER
October 23 to 26 2014, Grand Palais, (stands 0.D40/D42/E40/E42)
Announcement of the winner, Saturday 25th October 2014, 11.30 am
Place: Paris, Grand Palais (under the Stairway of Honour)
Théo MERCIER (born in 1984),
Julien PRÉVIEUX (born in 1974),
Florian et Michaël QUISTREBERT (born in 1982 and 1976),
and Evariste RICHER (born in 1969)).
Of French nationality, born in Morocco in 1974 at El Khnansa, Latifa Echakhch has lived in France since the age of three and grew up in the French Alps. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts of Cergy-Paris and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Lyon, the artist currently works at Martigny in Switzerland.
“The jury was appreciative of the manner in which Latifa Echakhch knows how to activate the potential of the space she is occupying by calling upon easily recognizable elements”, declared Alfred Paquement, President of the Jury. “Somewhere between surrealism and conceptualism, her work questions with economy and precision the significance of symbols and conveys the fragility of modernism. The artist does not coerce the viewer into making an obligatory reading of her works whose meaning remains open with any dogmatism.”
The artist was rewarded for her work as a whole which was presented to the Jury by her reporter, Rein WOLFS, Director of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. Elle follows after the duo Dewar & Gicquel and will be invited by the Centre Pompidou for a three month solo show in the autumn of 2014 in the 315 space. The ADIAF will award the winner a financial endowment of 35 000 euros and will participate in the cost of the exhibition’s production to the amount of 30 000 euros. Latifa Echakhch is represented by the Parisian gallery kamel mennour as well as by overseas galleries: kaufmann repetto in Milan; Dvir Gallery in Tel Aviv and Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zürich.
The announcement was made before a very large audience on Saturday, the 26th of October in Paris at the Grand Palais by Gilles FUCHS, President of the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art (ADIAF) and Alfred PACQUEMENT, Director of the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou and President of the jury
On the 7th of February at ARTCURIAL, Gilles Fuchs, President of the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art, announced the names of the four artists selected for the 2013 Marcel Duchamp Prize.
An exhibition of the nominated artists will be held this summer at the Musée des Beaux-arts in the town of Libourne which will be hosting the 13th edition of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, then in October at the FIAC. Chosen by an international jury, the award winner will be announced on Saturday, the 26th of October 2013. He or she will be invited by the Centre Pompidou for a solo show in the 315 space during the autumn of 2014. The ADIAF will present him or her with a financial endowment of 35 000 Euros and will participate in the production of the work.
Farah ATASSI, born in 1981 in Brussels 
Lives and works in Paris
Galerie Xippas, Paris – www.xippas.com
Born in Brussels (Belgium), lives and works in Paris
Born in Brussels of Syrian parents, Farah Atassi belongs to the young generation of French painters. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris, evolving between abstraction and representation, she paints empty living rooms and “places of transition”: waiting rooms, offices, empty kitchens or workers’ hostels, public or private places only occupied for a short while. Her bare and deserted interiors suggesting a human and social reality have become her trademark.
Latifa ECHAKHCH, born in 1974 in Morocco 
Lives and works in Paris
Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris
www.kamelmennour.com
Born in 1974 in El Khnansa (Morocco), lives and works in Paris
French, born in Morocco, Latifa Echakhch has lived in France since the age of 3. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts of Cergy-Paris and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Lyon, she works with assemblies of objects and sculptures which she uses in a manner similar to a film maker, giving a new twist to ordinary objects inherited from ready-mades: lumps of sugar, bits of carpet and broken glass teacups.
Claire FONTAINE, group founded in Paris in 2004 
Galerie Chantal Crousel & Niklas Svennung, Paris and Air de Paris
www.crousel.com – www.airdeparis.com
Group founded in Paris in 2004
Representing a socio-culturally committed movement in contemporary art, Claire Fontaine is a group formed in 2004 by two artists living in Paris: James Thornill et Fulvia Carnevale. After taking the name from a popular brand of school notebooks as well as from Duchamp’s urinal that he entitled “Fontaine”, Claire Fontaine declared itself a “ready-made artist”. Often provocative but also poetic, Claire Fontaine’s work questions the world and the art world in particular.
The group creates sculptures, paintings, writings, videos and installations.
Raphaël ZARKA, born in 1977 in Montpellier 
Lives and works in Paris
Galerie Michel Rein, Paris – www.michelrein.com
Born in 1977 in Montpellier, lives and works in Paris
French, born in Morocco, Latifa Echakhch has lived in France since the age of 3. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts of Cergy-Paris and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Lyon, she works with assemblies of objects and sculptures which she uses in a manner similar to a film maker, giving a new twist to ordinary objects inherited from ready-mades: lumps of sugar, bits of carpet and broken glass teacups.
Bernhard Mendes BÜRGI (Switzerland), Director of the Basel Kunstmuseum
Gilles FUCHS (France), President of the ADIAF, Collector
Jacqueline MATISSE-MONNIER (France, United States) – Artist
Alfred Pacquement (France), Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, President of the jury
Giovanni SPRINGMEIER (Germany), Collector
Poul Erik TOJNER (Denmark), Director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen
Sylvie WINCKLER (France/Belgium), Collector
