Mohamed Bourouissa was chosen from Elena Bellantoni, Anna Franceschini, Voluspa Jarpa and Agnes Questionmark by a jury composed of the public and Caroline Bourgeois (Curator of the Pinault Collection, Paris), Manuel Borja-Villel (author and independent curator), Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director of the New Museum, New York – Artistic Director of the Fondazione Trussardi, Milan) and Beatrice Merz.
Natalia Domínguez Rangel was chosen from Arturo Corrales and Luigi Morleo by a jury composed of the public and Thomas Demenga (cellist and composer), Philip Samartzis (sound artist and professor Melbourne University), Helena Winkelman (violinist and composer) and Willy Merz (composer and conductor).
The jury of the Art section unanimously decided to award Mohamed Bourouissa with the following motivation:
For Mohamed Bourouissa, art carries an energetic charge… and it is precisely through this force that his work becomes a catalyst for transformation. When he reflects and creates, he does so in solitude – an essential condition that allows things to unfold and come to him: it is the world itself that collaborates with him. Art, for him, has a social role; it belongs to society, and his projects seek depth of meaning by offering us pathways of listening and observation. He opens our eyes to the aggression that lurks within a society standardised by behaviours and representations. In everyday objects, gestures and movements, he reveals the unrest of accumulated violence. He highlights not only the great upheavals of society and politics, but also the micro-phenomena of brutality that usually go unnoticed.
Each project becomes an opportunity for him to navigate the shifting balance between freedom and control.
As the winning artist Mohamed Bourouissa will have the opportunity to create a personal exhibition project at Fondazione Merz in 2027.
The jury of the Music section unanimously decided to award Natalia Domínguez Rangel with the following motivation:
The music jury expressed particular appreciation for the work of Natalia Domínguez Rangel, which develops an original exploration of the porous boundaries between body and environment. The jury chose to reward her research for its refined sound design, the quality of its spatial and immersive construction, and its focus on permeability and transformation.
Natalia Domínguez Rangel will be commissioned to create a piece for string orchestra or for solo instrument and string orchestra, or alternatively for the design of the soundtrack for a space.
The winners of past editions were Wael Shawky, Petrit Halilaj, Bertille Bak and Yto Barrada for the art section and Cyrill Schürch, Geoffrey Gordon, Jay Schwartz and Füsun Köksal for the music section.
Biographies
Mohamed Bourouissa is an Algerian artist, born in 1978 and based in Paris. Bourouissa’s practice brings into focus the margins of contemporary society, tracing their contours, shadows, and silences. Working across photography and video, he captures the faces and presences of those inhabiting the precarious space between integration and exclusion, suspended in a time often overlooked or distorted by mass media. Each project emerges from a long process of listening and immersion, giving rise to new forms of narration and new spaces for expression.
His submission to the Mario Merz Prize explores the notion of control, the expropriation of the body, and he dynamics of domination within the state. The film work reflects on police brutality, portraying it as an invisible violence, masked by legal humiliation.
His work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions, including at Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy (2025); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2024); LaM – Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Lille, France (2023); Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, UK (2021); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021). His work is also represented in notable public collections worldwide including the MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland, and many others.
Natalia Domínguez Rangel is a Colombian/Dutch artist and music composer currently living and working in Vienna and Amsterdam.
She holds a Master in Music Composition, Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Her compositions are played at Radialsystem, Berlin (DE); Muziekgebow aan‘t Ij, Amsterdam (NL); Vienna Biennale (AT), Theaterhaus – Südseite P1, Stuttgart (DE); Kiasma, Helsinki (FI); Festival Archipel, Geneve (CH); Het Orgelpark, Amsterdam (NL); International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam (NL); International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (DE); EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam (NL); STUK, Leuven (BE); Dampfzentrale, Bern (CH); ImPulz Tanz, Vienna (AT); November Music, Den Bosch (NL); Société de Musique Contemporaine, Lausanne (CH) De Apple Arts Center, Amsterdam (NL); Les Urbaines, Lausanne (CH); Gaudeamus Muziek Week, Amsterdam (NL); Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK); Museum Arnhem (NL), CODA Museum, Apeldoorn (NL) between others.
She is a docent at Design Art Technology department of ArtEZ, Arnhem, NL and teaches Sound in Sculpture at Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (mdw) in Vienna.
