Taloi Havini Wins Tenth Anniversary Artes Mundi Prize

Havini is one of seven international contemporary visual artists whose work is currently on show across five venue partners in Wales until 25 February 2024 for the tenth anniversary edition of Artes Mundi. Havini’s work is presented at Mostyn in Llandudno and at Chapter in Cardiff.

Taloi Havini is a multidisciplinary artist using a range of media including photography, audio–video, sculpture, immersive installation and print, to probe intersections of history, identity, and nation-building within the matrilineal social structures of her birthplace, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. At Mostyn, Llandudno, Havini presents a major immersive video installation, Habitat. The three-channel work continues her ongoing investigation into the legacy of resource extraction and Australia’s fraught relationship in the Pacific. Here, Havini also presents a new work, Where the rivers flow, (Panguna, Jaba, Pangara, Konawiru), a series of 40 prints extracted from the artist’s film archives following her journey through the centre of the tropical island of Bougainville. At Chapter, Cardiff Havini presents a further new photographic work comprising a mural and three lightboxes, entitled Hyena (day and night).

For the tenth anniversary edition (20 October 2023 to 25 February 2024), Artes Mundi exhibits work across five venue partners in Wales for the first time. The shortlisted artists and exhibition locations for AM10 are: Mounira Al Solh, Rushdi Anwar and Alia Farid at National Museum Cardiff (one of the Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales family of museums); Nguyễn Trinh Thi at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea and Chapter, Cardiff; Taloi Havini at Mostyn, Llandudno and Chapter, Cardiff; Carolina Caycedo at Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown and Chapter, Cardiff; and Naomi Rincón Gallardo at Chapter, Cardiff.

As an important arbiter of cultural exchange between the UK and international communities, Artes Mundi has built a reputation for bringing together art by some of the most relevant artistic voices engaging with urgent topics of our time. Past editions have seen Artes Mundi work with artists at crucial stages of their careers, often being their first introduction to UK audiences, with many now established figures on the world stage, including Dineo Seshee Bopape, Prabhakar Pachpute, Ragnar Kjartansson, Theaster Gates, John Akomfrah, Teresa Margolles, Xu Bing, and Tania Bruguera.

Taloi Havini, winner of the Artes Mundi 10 Prize, said, “I am elated and yet feel incredibly humbled to be receiving this prestigious prize. It was an honour to have been nominated alongside these fellow artists. I am grateful to the jury and Artes Mundi for this opportunity during what has been a very challenging time globally. It means a lot to me that my people's Indigenous ancestral stories have had a presence in Cardiff and Llandudno. It is my hope that Welsh and wider audiences can find some connection to histories of extraction and the ongoing struggle for cultural, environmental and political self-determination that I speak to in Bougainville.”

Nigel Prince, Director of Artes Mundi, said, “Taloi Havini is a deserved winner, her practice rooted in her own communities yet speaking to the world with care, precision and measure. The works on display at AM10 embed and establish a series of starting points from which to enable a redrawing of positions toward future positive directions and healing.”

Alka Bagri, Trustee, Bagri Foundation said, “As Presenting Partner, the Bagri Foundation is thrilled to see the Artes Mundi 10 Prize announced. With such a strong exhibition by seven important international artists, the award reflects our shared commitment to artistic excellence on a global scale. We are proud to support artists who speak to the urgent issues of our time and embrace cross-cultural influences from Asia and beyond. Congratulations to all the artists and AM10 jury!”

In a shared statement the Artes Mundi 10 jury said, “As a jury, we were impressed by the depth and sophistication of all seven remarkable artists. It made for careful and involved deliberations. In selecting Taloi Havini as the winner of the AM10 Prize, we were struck by the integrity of her work which is exceptional in its research, deployment of Indigenous knowledge, ethics of relationality, and aesthetic rigour. Material, story and site form the ground from which she creates installations that are both moving and visually stunning. An artist of our times, Havini’s work transforms our understanding of environment and domination to posit living otherwise as communal, with respect for our non-human relations and a non-extractive economy.”