News – The inaugural Artes Mundi award

The inaugural Artes Mundi award, billed as the world?s biggest visual arts prize, has been presented to Xu Bing (pictured) for his Where does the dust collect itself?, an installation consisting of a message stencilled in dust that he collected from the fallen World Trade Centre.

The £40,000 award is a joint initiative of the Arts Council of Wales, the BBC, the Welsh Assembly, 14 funders, 8 sponsors and 13 partners and supporters, and is twice the value of the Turner prize. A total of 350 artists were nominated from 55 countries, and an exhibition of the ten shortlisted artists is currently showing at the National Museum and Gallery of Wales in Cardiff. £30,000 has also been made available for the gallery to purchase some of the shortlisted pieces. Wales? First Minister, Rhodri Morgan said, ?Bringing together this wide selection of contemporary art from across the world is a major new initiative and establishes Wales as a pioneer in support of the arts.?