DUBAI: French-Algerian artist and activist Mohamed Bourouissa was awarded the $38,000 Deutsche Börse photography prize for his politically-charged “Free Trade” installation first exhibited at a Monoprix supermarket in France.
The installation was shown across an entire floor of the supermarket as part of the Les Rencontres d’Arles photography festival last year.
Using a number of different mediums, including photography and video, the Algerian-born artist’s work reflects the lives of the economically disenfranchised and marginalized inhabitants of France’s major cities.
“Free Trade” brought together five hand-selected projects from the last 15-years, such as his 2005-2008 “Périphérique” series, which highlights the lives of unemployed youths in the Paris banlieues captured via smartphone, surveillance footage and augmented reality.
“Free Trade” also included the 2009 series titled “Temps Mort,” made in collaboration with two prison inmates, as well as the more recent “Shoplifters,” where the artist re-photographed polaroids of shoplifters in Brooklyn.
The 2020 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize Exhibition opened at The Photographers’ Gallery in London earlier this year. Curated by The Photographers’ Gallery’s Anna Dannemann, the exhibition brought together the four nominated projects from the 2020 shortlisted artists, including Anton Kusters, Mark Neville and Clare Strand.
