The V&A and Art Jameel announce Khandakar Ohida as the winner of the 7th edition of the Jameel Prize focussed on moving images.
The V&A and Art Jameel have announced Khandakar Ohida (b. 1993, India) as the winner of the 7th edition of the Jameel Prize, an international award worth £25,000 for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. The triennial competition, founded in 2009 in collaboration with Art Jameel, focusses this year on artists working with moving image and digital media.
An exhibition of works by the winner and shortlisted artists is on display at the V&A South Kensington from November 30th, 2024 to March 16th, 2025.
Khandakar Ohida received the award for the film ‘Dream Your Museum’ (2022) a portrait of her uncle, Khandakar Selim, who has built an extraordinary collection of objects and memorabilia over the last 50 years. Ohida documented the collection as it was displayed in her uncle’s traditional mud home, which has since been torn down. The work challenges the formal nature of museums in India, particularly as bastions of nationalism that offer little room for alternative narratives. ‘Dream Your Museum’ counters the colonial museum model, instead inviting people to find value in the seemingly banal objects that are an intrinsic part of their lives. As members of India’s Muslim community, both Selim and the artist confront the socio-political hierarchies that shape identity, offering a nuanced exploration of cultural representation and belonging.
For ‘Jameel Prize: Moving Images’ the film is accompanied by an installation of objects from Selim’s collection, which he transports in simple metal trunks. This portable museum is displayed informally as a jumble of curious items, an installation choice intended to defy the authority and neatness typically found in conventional museums. In this work the artist invites us to envision a future where cultural heritage is liberated from the constraints of convention and exclusivity.
The shortlisted artists for ‘Jameel Prize: Moving Images’ are Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Jawa El Khash, Alia Farid, Zahra Malkani, Khandakar Ohida, Marrim Akashi Sani, and Rami Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian (as a collective). Applicants were sought through an open call in 2023, which considered artists working with film, video and time-based media, alongside those engaging with established and emerging digital technologies. From over 300 submissions, seven finalists were selected by an international jury composed of artists Morehshin Allahyari and Ajlan Gharem (winner of the previous Prize, Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics), curator Sadia Shirazi, and academic Laura U. Marks, and chaired by V&A Director Tristram Hunt.
Further Information: Jameel Prize: Moving Images · V&A