The Singapore Biennale and Benesse Corporation recently announced Amanda Heng as the winner of the 12th Benesse Prize, awarded at the ongoing Singapore Biennale, titled “Every Step in the Right Direction”. The Benesse Prize was established in 1995 when Fututake Publishing Co. Ltd changed its corporate name to Benesse Corporation. The biennial prize was first awarded in the same year at the Venice Biennale to Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Its creation followed the mission of recognising the artistic endeavours of outstanding artists and supporting those who embody the corporate philosophy of the Benesse Group – namely, “Well-Being”.
The award presents a cash prize of JPY 3 million, and the winning artist also receives a commission to create an artwork to be exhibited at Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Japan, or the opportunity to have their work collected at the Site.
After being hosted for ten editions by the Venice Biennale, the Benesse Prize became the official award of the Singapore Biennale in 2016, presented in collaboration with the Singapore Art Museum. The 11th Benesse Prize was awarded to young Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee, with the Shoichiro Fututake Prize going to Singaporean artist Zulkifle Mahmod.
At the current edition of the Singapore Biennale, the Benesse Prize went to Singaporean artist Amanda Heng. She is the fourth Asian artist to receive the award, after Cai Guo-Qiang (1995), and Thai artists Rikrit Tiravanija (2003) and Pannaphan Yodmanee (2016). Heng won over a strong shortlist of fellow practitioners that included Dusadee Huntrakul (Thailand), Haifa Subay (Yemen), Hera Büyüktaşçıyan (Turkey) and Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore).
The artist was seleceted by a jury composed by Ade Darmawan, artist and member of ruangrupa; Eugene Tan, Director of the Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery Singapore; Gong Yan, Director of Power Station of Art; Valentine Willie, Director of ILHAM Gallery; and Akiko Miki, International Artistic Director of Benesse Art Site Naoshima.
Amanda Heng (b. 1951, Singapore) received a diploma in printmaking from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, and a BA from the University of Arts London. Heng was conferred the prestigious Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2010, and has exhibited widely. Important exhibitions include “Ties of History: Art in Southeast Asia” at Vargas Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and Yuchengco Museum (Manila, the Philippines, 2018), and a retrospective titled “Speak To Me, Walk With Me” at Singapore Art Museum (2012).
As the Singapore Biennale explains, Amanda Heng “invites participation and intimate conversations” performative works that often take on everyday situations to explore issues like the complexities of labour or the politics of gender.
Her commission for SB19, which won her the Benesse Prize, is titled Every Step Counts and is a multi-disciplinary project that includes a workshop, text work in public space, archival footage, a video projection and live performance. The project revisits Heng’s “Let’s Walk” series, first performed in 1999, and selected as a conceptual anchor for the 14th edition of the Singapore Fringe Festival in 2018.
The work draws upon the act of walking, a central feature in many of her works, and sees the artist moving forward, looking back, turning inward and venturing outward with others. In the new piece, Heng returns to the seminal scene of the first walk, and facilitates a workshop with people who chart their own routes of walking, and with whom she walks. It is through the collective performance and dialogue that the artist thus “generates reflections and perspectives, as well as comes to terms with the limits and stamina of the aging body”.