Indian photographer, installation artist and women’s rights activist Sheba Chhachhi has been selected for the second Prix Thun for Art and Ethics award, said a press release by Pro Helvetia, which works on disseminating Swiss art and culture in South Asia. The art prize aims at promoting artists who support a sustainable world.
Sheba Chhachhi is an artist, writer and woman’s rights activist who creates large multimedia installations about ecology, gender and urban transformations in public spaces.
The prize is worth 25,000 Swiss francs (Rs 16.5 lakh). Artist George Steinmann initiated the art prize, which was first given out in 2016. This year, on the jury along with him were Jürg Neuenschwander, film director and producer, Peter Schneemann, professor at the Bern Institute for Art History; Jean Ziegler, professor and sociologist, Geneva; Helen Hirsch, Director of Kunstmuseum Thun and Marianne Flubacher, Head of the Cultural Department of the City of Thun. Chhachhi was selected from among eight artists nominated for the prize.
The Prix Thun for Art and Ethics will be given officially on August 25, 2017 at Thun, near Switzerland’s capital of Berne.
On February 22, a few weeks before International Women’s Day on March 8, Chhachhi launched the book Arc Silt Dive – The works of Sheba Chhachhi, in Bengaluru. Arc Silt Dive contains photographs of installations and video works by Chhachhi, as well as essays which examine various ways to read her works.
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