The winner of the inaugural EYE Prize is Hito Steyerl (b. 1966, Munich). She receives the £25, 000 GBP prize to fund the making of new work.

The EYE Prize, a collaboration between the Dutch film museum EYE and the Paddy & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund, aims to support and promote an artist or filmmaker whose work has contributed to the developments in the field between art and film in a remarkable manner.

An international advisory board, consisting of key members from the fields of visual arts and film, made the selection of nominated candidates for the EYE Prize, and the winner was chosen by the EYE Prize Jury. The winner will be presented to the public at the annual EYE Gala on April 2, 2015, to coincide with EYE’s third anniversary.

From the Jury’s report: “Steyerl is amongst the keenest observers of our thoroughly globalised, digitised world. Her works are at the forefront of the new digital age language, which she researches, questions and opens up to discussion. She speculates on the impact of the internet digitalisation on the fabric of everyday life. By using all different and possible audiovisual techniques, Steyerl is an essay filmmaker and artist par excellence.”

Born in 1966 in Munich, Germany, Berlin-based artist and writer Hito Steyerl is one of the most critically acclaimed artists working in the field of the moving image today. Her work straddles the border between film and fine arts, and between theory and practice, exploring the role of the media in globalisation, and the mass proliferation and dissemination of images and knowledge brought on by digital technologies.

In the last year, she has had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Her work has been included in the 2013 Venice Biennale and Istanbul Biennial, the 2010 Gwangju and Taipei biennials, the 2008 Shanghai Biennale, Documenta 12, Kassel, in 2007 and Manifesta 5 in 2004. Steyerl is a professor of Art and Multimedia at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Marking a new collaboration between EYE, the Dutch film museum and the Paddy & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund, the creation of the EYE Prize was set to highlight the intricate relation between contemporary art and film.

EYE positions itself as a leading international museum of the art and culture of the moving image – as a museum that presents film as the youngest, most dynamic and border-crossing art form. EYE’s commitment to exploring the interface between art and film—both historical and contemporary developments —is clearly illustrated by its programming of exhibitions, screening room programmes, events, lectures and symposia. EYE’s exhibition programme concentrates on the various forms in which film is shown within the context of museums and has a strong focus on the area in which visual arts and film meet. The many artists/filmmakers that have been the subject of dedicated exhibitions include Yang Fudong, Oskar Fischinger, Brothers Quay, Fiona Tan, Anthony McCall, Isaac Julien, David Maljkovic, Douglas Gordon, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Nicolas Provost, and Slater Bradley.

Sandra den Hamer, CEO of EYE: “With the undeniable intimate relationship between the moving image and contemporary arts, it is about time for a prize for work which brings these two art forms together. EYE is delighted that the PJLF Arts Fund has made the creation of this new prize possible, and, with our additional commitment to stage an exhibition every fourth year of the three previous years’ EYE Prize winners, EYE will cement its position as a leading and international institution for film and art.”