Turner Prize Nominated Artist Collective Cooking Sections Dedicates Prize to Sakiya

Cooking Sections, one of four artist collectives that was nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, in a historic first, has dedicated their prize to Sakiya. In a post on their Instagram page, Cooking Sections stated:

Art and culture cannot be fueled by those who profit from violence. We acknowledge art institutions in the UK are facing increasing dependency on private funding due to insufficient governmental support. The shift -even if slow- to refuse funding from those who benefit from apartheid regimes, human right violations and fossil fuels is the beginning of a necessary realignment of public institutions to ensure the rights of future generations. But this is just the beginning. We need to find ways to restore and restitute the natural and cultural wealth that has been exploited by centuries of colonial and capitalist extraction.

In support of ongoing liberation struggles across the globe, we will be awarding the £10,000 of our Turner Prize nomination to Sakiya, an artist collective in Palestine working to revitalize and reimagine disappearing agricultural traditions through contemporary artistic and ecological practices. Striving for liberation through tolerance, generosity, collective labour, and enhanced biodiversity, we deeply admire their long-term commitment to sharing prosperity beyond political boundaries.

In solidarity,
Cooking Sections

Sakiya is a progressive academy for experimental knowledge production and sharing, grafting local agrarian traditions of self-sufficiency with contemporary art and ecological practices. This circular system of knowledge production and sharing integrates agriculture within the framework of an interdisciplinary residency program, where cultural actors, such as farmers and crafts/small industry initiatives, assume a prominent role alongside visiting and local artists and scholars. Sakiya’s core programs engage food production, exhibitions, symposia, publications, and education/training workshops, exploring the intersections between art, science, and agriculture in a sustainable and replicable model.