The Artes Mundi 9 exhibition, which celebrates new and existing work by some of the world’s best international contemporary artists, will at long last open to the public from Wednesday 19 May until Sunday 5 September across National Museum Cardiff, Chapter and g39.  

The winner of the £40,000 Artes Mundi 9 Prize – the UK’s largest international contemporary art prize – selected by an expert panel of jurors from the shortlisted artists Firelei Báez (Dominican Republic), Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa), Meiro Koizumi (Japan), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (Puerto Rico), Prabhakar Pachpute (India) and Carrie Mae Weems (USA), will be announced digitally on Thursday 17 June. 

As well as a powerfully reconfigured multi-channel video installation by Meiro Koizumi, Artes Mundi 9 marks the global premiere of major new works including Carrie Mae Weems’ photographic installation The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, a new film, About Falling by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and a series of dynamic large-scale paintings by Firelei Báez. An immersive installation comprising sculpture, drawing and sound by Dineo Seshee Bopape uses soil and clay from Welsh sacred sites combined with earth from other locations around the world including Île de Gorée, Senegal; James River, Richmond, Virginia; Mississippi River, New Orleans; and the Achimota Forest, Accra, Ghana. And Prabhakar Pachpute has developed an installation of paintings on canvas banners that continues his critique of the individual worker within the context of larger corporate and economic forces. 

A robust public programme has launched online alongside the exhibition, structured as a series of talks, videos, podcasts, live streamed and downloadable activities and events. Starting with panel-based discussions, these will provide deeper insight into the practice, ideas, issues and thinking of each of the shortlisted artists and their work.