Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle is a French conceptual artist, known for her explorations of personal relationships and chance events. Through photography, film and text, her works involve an almost voyeuristic documentation of other people’s lives and her interactions with them. In her first work, The Sleepers (1979), she invited strangers to sleep in her bed and then interviewed them and in Venetian Suite (1980), she followed a stranger from Paris to Venice, secretly photograph his visit. With The Address Book (1983), Calle took an address book that she had found and contacted people in the book, creating a portrait of its owner. Calle has also boldly exposed her own life in her works. Exquisite Pain (1999-2000), used photographs and words to record and express the pain of the breakup of a relationship. Take Care of Yourself (2007), created for the French Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, asked 107 women to interpret the last line of a break up letter, eliciting remarkable, varied and poetic responses. Her work depicts human vulnerability and examines identity and intimacy, but her aim is simple, “I’m looking to make works to tell stories that have poetic or artistic potential.” In 2010 she won the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. In 2012 she was awarded the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France and Britain’s Royal Photographic Society’s Honorary Fellowship in 2019.

Doris Salcedo

Doris Salcedo, a sculptor and installation artist from Colombia, creates works that delve into themes of violence, loss, memory, and pain by reusing and transforming familiar materials such as wooden furniture and clothing. She studied art at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá before moving to the United States in the early 1980s to pursue a MA degree at New York University. The prolonged civil war in Colombia, which lasted over half a century, serves as the inspiration for her creative work, with all of her pieces focusing on the victims of violence. Salcedo’s notable works include Shibboleth (2007), where she created a crack in the floor of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in the UK, and Fragmentos (2018), where she used molten metal from 37 tons of weapons to create the floor tiles of an exhibition hall to commemorate the end of the Colombian civil war. Currently she is working on a piece made out of human hair “to address the willful destructions of homes.” Salcedo has received numerous awards, including the Hiroshima Art Prize, the Nasher Prize (USA), and the Nomura Art Award. She is the first artist from Colombia to receive the Praemium Imperiale.

Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban played rugby from elementary school through high school. After graduating, he moved to the United States to study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and later transferred to the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City. During a leave of absence, he worked for Arata Isozaki & Associates in Tokyo. Upon graduation, he returned to Japan and opened his own practice. In 1995, as an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ban built a shelter out of paper tubes in a Rwandan refugee camp. In the same year, he built temporary housing for victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This experience led him to found the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), which provides architectural relief to refugees and disaster victims around the world. Ban has designed numerous innovative buildings, including the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010) with its undulating laminated wood and membrane roof, La seine musicale (2017) and the Swatch Omega (2019). Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, he continues to fulfill his mission as an architect in times of peace and in times of crisis.

Maria João Pires

Maria João Pires began piano lessons at the age of three and gave her first public performance at four. She studied at the Lisbon Conservatory with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoît. At 17 she received a scholarship from Gulbenkian Foundation to continue her study in Germany with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. Pires credits Engel with helping her to place music within the context of life. She won the Beethoven Bicentennial Competition in 1970. Her recital debuts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in 1986 and Carnegie Hall, New York in 1989 were the start of an international career. Since the 1970s, Pires has devoted herself to reflecting on the influence of art in life, community and education, trying to discover new ways in which individuals and cultures are encouraged to respect and share ideas. In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal, where she developed choirs for children from rural backgrounds, experimental concerts and workshops for professional and amateur artists alike. In 2012 she complemented the Belgais approach with two further projects in Belgium: the Partitura Choirs for children from underprivileged backgrounds, and the Partitura Workshops where different generations share the stage in order to find alternatives to competition, and to create an altruistic dynamic between artists. Both projects aimed to create respect for each other, respect for all cultures, the environment, nature, and life.

Ang Lee

Born in Taiwan, Ang Lee is a film director who works mainly in the United States. Whether in the East or the West, he has gained worldwide fame for his films that combine artistry in depicting people facing the currents of the times with entertainment value that appeals to a wide audience. After graduating from the National Taiwan University of the Arts, he moved to the United States to study theater at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His most notable films include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012). His awards include the Academy Award for Best Director, the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. He was awarded the 1st Class Order of Brilliant Star by the Taiwanese government in 2013 and L’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur by the French government in 2021. He is the first artist from Taiwan to receive the Praemium Imperiale.