Tonight in Liverpool, England, the prestigious Turner Prize for modern art was awarded to Mark Wallinger. Although specific pieces are entered for the associated exhibition, the award recognises a body of work rather than the specific piece.
Wallinger submitted a video previously seen at the Venice Biennale but it is widely accepted that he won the award in recognition of a piece shown earlier this year at the Tate Britain in London which protested the Iraq War.
The award ceremony and exhibition for this year's Turner prize was held at the Tate Liverpool in recognition of the city's status as next year's European City of Culture. The piece Wallinger presented was a video of him dressed in a bear costume roaming an empty art gallery late at night.
The piece he got the award for was entitled "State Britain" and was an installation at the Tate Gallery's original and main building, Tate Britain. The work "State Britain" recreated the demonstration posters banners and peace flags that the lone protestor Brian Haw had assembled in Parliament Square. A change in the law restricted protests to a specific radius from parliament. Part of the exhibition was a line in the gallery showing the limit of that zone. The site specific nature of the piece meant the different artwork submitted for the Liverpool exhibit.