Christelle Oyiri, a Paris-based artist, DJ, writer, and producer, has been awarded the PONTOPREIS MMK 2024, a prestigious prize given every two years by the Museum MMK for Modern Art in Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with the MUSEUMMMKFÜR MODERNE KUNST.
Oyiri's work combines film, music, performance, and sculpture to explore themes of colonial alienation and alternative temporalities. She draws on French culture as well as Caribbean and West African rhythms, iconographies, and visual worlds to create new mythologies and revisit existing ones. Her work has been exhibited at various venues, such as the Centre Pompidou, Lafayette Anticipations, Haus der Kunst, Auto Italia (London), LAND (Nomadic Division Los Angeles), Musée Espace Arlaud, Ars Electronica and HeK (Basel).
The jury for the PONTOPREIS MMK 2024 praised Oyiri for her radically interdisciplinary work and her clear, free observations and analyses. In their statement, they wrote:
"In her work, Christelle Oyiri explores the tension between erasure and remembrance. By creating new mythologies and revisiting existing ones, Oyiri shows how French culture as well as Caribbean and West African rhythms, iconographies, and visual worlds influence and shape the present. The artist’s clear, free observations and analyses convincingly illustrate how everyday life and art—permeated by historical events and cultural imprints—are transformed into new forms."
Oyiri will receive a prize of 10,000 euros which will be paid out as a scholarship and an exhibition at ZOLLAMTMMK, opening on 23 February 2024.