MUNCH Award: Rosana Paulino

Artistic freedom is under increasing political and social pressure, and within this context, MUNCH has created a new annual award of NOK 300,000 / £20,000 to recognise an artist who has distinguished themselves with courage and integrity throughout their career.

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) was a champion of artistic freedom, experimentation and individual liberation in his time. The museum continues this legacy as a space for artistic expression, generating novel perspectives and fostering dialogue and understanding. The MUNCH Award will be presented annually in the spirit of Edvard Munch, using the museum’s international reach to highlight important issues that artists have raised through their work and participation in public discourse.

MUNCH director Tone Hansen commented:

‘Freedom of expression is under growing constraint all over the world. With our new MUNCH Award, we pay tribute to the artist’s role as a critical voice in society’, c

The recipient of the inaugural award is acclaimed Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino (b. 1967). She will be honoured at an awards ceremony on 24 October 2024 at MUNCH in Oslo. The MUNCH Award jury statement:

“Rosana Paulino has contributed to some of the most important conversations about art, histories and society in Brazil and beyond. Over the course of several decades, she has radically committed her artistic practice to unpacking the violent histories and continuities of gender and race. She has created an immensely broad and poetic oeuvre of installations, drawings, artist’s books and videos. Through her teaching practice, Paulino has continuously been engaged in an intergenerational dialogue. With this award, the jury wishes to honour Paulino as an artist who has also been a leading voice of Black feminism with a steadfast commitment to the struggle of Afro-Brazilian communities, and the on-going fight against racism.”

The jury is comprised of three external members Wanda Nanibush, Yvette Mutumba, and Cosmin Costinaș, alongside Tone Hansen and Tominga O’Donnell from MUNCH. Through a process of deliberation and discussion, the jury collectively selected Rosana Paulino for the inaugural award.

About the Jury:
Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation, Canada. Based in Toronto, Nanibush is the founding director of aabaakwad, an international yearly gathering of Indigenous curators, writers and artists that last took place at Venice Biennale. She recently won the Toronto Book Award for her coauthored book Moving the Museum which chronicles her groundbreaking work at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She developed her position as the inaugural curator of Indigenous Art and co-lead of the Indigenous + Canadian Art Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She has curated survey, group, and retrospective exhibitions: Robert Houle Red is Beautiful (NMAI, Smithsonian, Washington); Rebecca Belmore, Facing the Monumental (2019), (Canada and the U.S) and Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971–1989 among many others. She received her M.A. in Visual Studies from University of Toronto where she has also taught graduate courses. Nanibush has published widely on Indigenous art, politics, history and feminism and sexuality.

Dr Yvette Mutumba is co-founder and director of Contemporary And (C&), a platform reflecting and connecting ideas and discourses on contemporary arts. With its work being deeply rooted in a constantly growing network of creative voices from all over the world, C& publishes two magazines, facilitates educational formats, and develops projects online, offline and in between. Since 2020 Yvette is also curator-at-large at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and lectures at the Institute of Art in Context at the University of Arts, Berlin. She was part of the curatorial team of the 10th Berlin Biennale and Guest Professor for Global Discourses at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. 2012 to 2016 she was curator at the Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt a. M. As author and editor, she has published numerous texts and
books on contemporary arts.

Cosmin Costinaș (b. 1982, Romania) is the Senior Curator of Exhibition Practices at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, HKW, Berlin (since 2022) and co-Artistic Director of the 24th Biennale of Sydney (2024). He was the Executive Director/Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong (2011–22); Artistic Director of Kathmandu Triennale 2077 (2022); co-curator of the Romanian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022); Curatorial Adviser of the Aichi Triennale (2022); Curator of Dakar Biennale 2018 – La Biennale de l’Art africain contemporain- DAK’ART (2018); Guest Curator at the Dhaka Art Summit (2018); Co-curator of the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); Curator of BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (2008–11); Co-curator of the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial, Ekaterinburg (2010); and Editor of documenta 12 magazines, Vienna/Kassel (2005–7), among others. He has edited and contributed his writing to numerous books,
magazines, and exhibition catalogues and has taught and lectured at different universities, art academies, and institutions across the world.

Tone Hansen (b. 1970, Kirkenes, Norway/Sápmi) Tone Hansen was appointed as director of MUNCH in October 2022. Under her leadership, the museum has further developed its extensive exhibition programme, offering new approaches to the museum’s three artistic areas of focus: the work of Edvard Munch, modernism, and contemporary art. Recent exhibitions include “Alice Neel: Every Person is a New Universe,” “Goya and Munch. Modern Prophecies,” “Corpus Infinitum” with Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva, and “Trembling Earth.” From 2011 to 2022 Hansen was the director of the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Here, she was responsible for a comprehensive rehabilitation of the building and the establishment of an exhibition program including well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Niki de Saint Phalle, Marc Chagall, Yayoi Kusama and Nikolai Astrup, Sami artist Nils Aslak Valkeapä, and the graphic artist and feminist icon Zdenka Rusova, as well as group exhibitions such as “We are Living on a Star” and “Every Moment Counts – AIDS and its feelings”. The diverse and cross-disciplinary programme drew on different perspectives, avant-garde and contemporary approaches. Hansen is the editor of several anthologies and artist monographs. From 2016 to 2019, she was chair of the Arts Council Norway.
She chaired the board of PoMo – Posten Moderne Museum in Trondheim until mid-2023, and has held several other board positions in Scandinavia. Hansen is educated at the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo (1994–1998) and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts as a scholar (equivalent to a PhD) from 2003 to
2009.

Dr Tominga O’Donnell is Senior Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at MUNCH, where they curated the programme Munchmuseet on the Move (2016–2019), adopting a queer curatorial approach and commissioning a range of off-site art projects. At the new museum on Oslo’s waterfront, O’Donnell is the curator of solo exhibitions with Camille Henrot, Sandra Mujinga, Piya Wanthiang and Admir Batlak; the inaugural MUNCH Triennale – the machine is us together with Stefano Collicelli Cagol; and a series of performance commissions in collaboration with Ingrid Moe, which includes new works by Manuel Pelmuş, Bendik Giske, Camille Norment, and Kiyoshi Yamamoto. O’Donnell has been Associate Professor in the theory department at the Art Academy, University of Bergen (2018–2022) and a visiting professor at the Art Academy/KHiO in Oslo.

About The MUNCH Award:
The MUNCH Award is a mark of recognition that is conferred on a contemporary visual artist or artist group. The Award is given out on an annual basis, and for the first time in 2024, consisting of a monetary prize of NOK 300.000 payable to the recipient of the Award. The MUNCH Award statutes are available upon request.

The 2024 recipient:
Rosana Paulino (born 1967 in Brazil) is an artist and educator, who lives and works in São Paulo.

About MUNCH:
MUNCH is home to the world’s largest collection of works by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944). In October 2021, MUNCH opened in a new museum building on Oslo’s waterfront. The bespoke 13-storey structure, designed by estudio Herreros, houses more than 26,000 works that Edvard Munch bequeathed to the City of Oslo. The museum also manages collections donated by Rolf Stenersen, Amaldus Nielsen and Ludvig Ravensberg. From its location in Bjørvika, with unparalleled views of the Oslo Fjord, the museum offers exhibitions of Munch’s work, modernism and contemporary art, as well as a wide-ranging programme of cultural events and experiences for visitors of all ages.