Prix Liliane Bettencourt | UN-Habitat | Prix Carta Bianca | Prix COAL | Prix MEREA | InCadaqués | Fondation Desperados

2026-10-12 15:14:00

2026-10-12 15:20:22

2026-10-12 15:20:22

Marion Hirsch

Awards of the Week Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main 2026craftsSébastien DesplatTalents d'exceptionSébastien Desplat is the winner of the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main 2026 in the section Talents d'exception for his piece Dans les bois. Sébastien Desplat is an intaglio engraver and printer. He founded his publishing house, OK Des Paris, in 2024. Inspired by his stay at Villa Kujoyama, Sébastien Desplat is breathing new life into moku hanga, a traditional Japanese woodblock-printing technique that is rarely practiced today. With Dans les bois, he reinvents this ancestral craft in a contemporary work that blends poetry and innovation. Image: Dans les bois © Yohanne Lamoulère / Tendance Flouecrafts | designLouis Monier and Edgar JayetDialoguesLouis Monier, artisan and chair maker, and Edgar Jayet, designer, are the winners of the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main 2026 in the section Dialogues, for their piece Meslée. This chair, with its distinctive lines, combines five centuries of craftsmanship with contemporary techniques to create a piece that is as bold in form as it is remarkable in execution, addressing the needs of modern use—particularly in terms of lightness: the Meslée chair weighs only four kilograms. Image: Meslée © Yohanne Lamoulère / Tendance FlouecraftsRéseau Excellence EPVParcoursRéseau Excellence EPV is the winner of the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main 2026 in the section Parcours. Glassmaking, weaving, metalwork, or engraving: Réseau Excellence EPV brings together more than 500 “Entreprises du Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Companies) that are revitalizing exceptional traditional know-how. It promotes the transmission of fine crafts and raises the profile of certified companies. Image: Shaping of bubbled glass, Verrerie Biot © Yohanne Lamoulère / Tendance FloueAbout the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main 2026 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour AwardarchitectureUN-Habitat Scroll of Honour AwardUN-Habitat has announced the five recipients of the 2026 Scroll of Honour Award, recognizing contributions to adequate housing and sustainable urban development in Brazil, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom. This year's winners include a housing organization working with communities affected by conflict and displacement, a researcher developing building materials from local and mining residues, an Indigenous village in Brazil, a public housing agency in Pakistan, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Selected from 101 nominations submitted across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the recipients represent a range of approaches to addressing housing and urban development challenges. Image: Housing NOW / Bago, Myanmar. © UN-HabitatAbout the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award Prix Carta Bianca 2026artNazanin Pouyandeh Marta RobertiPremier PrixThe Prix Carta Bianca aims to bridge the worlds of art and healthcare by facilitating interactions between artists and patients through collaborative projects. For its fifth edition, the First Prize was exceptionally awarded to two artists: Nazanin Pouyandeh, an Iranian painter living in France, and Italian artist Marta Roberti. A special award was also presented to visual artist Pascal Convert “to honor this French artist whose work exemplifies the values of the Prix Carta Bianca, grounded in ethics, a humanistic worldview, social commitment, the memory of those who fought for freedom, and the power of the book as a tool for resistance and the struggle against the destruction of thought.” Images: Nazanin Pouyandeh, La ronde, 2025. Oil on canvas, 160 x 200 cm. Marta Roberti, Self-portrait in a Flamingo pose, 2023. Oil pastel drawing on handmade carbon paper, on double-layered Taiwanese mulberry paper. Courtesy the artist & Sara Zanin/© Roberto Apa.About the Prix Carta Bianca Prix COAL 2026artChang-Ching SuPrix COALThe Prix COAL 2026 dedicated to “The Night,” invited artists to champion the night as a common good, a major ecological issue for the regeneration of life, a refuge, a diversity of languages to be celebrated, and a right to rest and obscurity. Chang-Ching Su was recognized for his project Jigging Green: A Dream Cast in Dormancy, an investigation into a unique form of light pollution in the Matsu Archipelago, Taiwan: the green lights of squid fishing boats that, every night, transform the horizon into an artificial aurora. The project, conducted in collaboration with the night-protection organization Dark-Sky, documents the impact of this light on nocturnal and migratory species while examining the political history of nighttime in Matsu, long marked by military curfews and the requirement to conceal domestic lights. Image: © Chang-Ching SuAbout the Prix COAL Prix MEREA 2026artLisa Cochonneau Eri Maeda Charlotte Menut-Yovanovitch Emma GarciaPrix MEREAFor its first edition, the Prix MEREA was awarded to Lisa Cochonneau, Eri Maeda, and Charlotte Menut-Yovanovitch, with a Prix Coup de cœur awarded to Emma Garcia. Lisa Cochonneau has developed a practice at the intersection of textile pleating and stained glass. Eri Maeda, a Japanese ceramicist, transforms everyday objects into monstrous forms to question the norms and expectations that shape our behavior. Charlotte Menut-Yovanovitch, a painter and graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, explores the representation of female bodies and the way they are viewed, particularly in the context of sports. Emma Garcia is a self-taught artist and physical therapist by profession, whose photographic practice explores issues of care and mental health. Images: Lisa Cochonneau, L'éclat de l'ombre et L'ombre du pli, 2025. © Emma Philippe / Palais d'Iéna - Auguste Perret, USFE, SAIF. © Emma Garcia, La Tendresse, 2024. © Eri Maeda, Monster hair clip, 2025, ceramic. © Charlotte Menut-Yovanovitch, Chute, 2025, mixed media on canvas, 180 x 200 cm.About the Prix MEREA InCadaqués 2026photographyValentina SinisPremi Mirada SocialValentina Sinis is the inaugural winner of the Premi Mirada Social of the InCadaqués Photo Festival 2026 which is holding its 10th edition in Catalonia, Spain, from 8 to 25 October 2026. Valentina Sinis is a documentary photographer whose work focuses on women’s lives, conflicts, and the personal repercussions of political realities. Her winning series The Last Butterflies gives a close and respectful look into the lives of Kurdish female guerrilla fighters. Most are from the Kurdish regions of Iran and belong to the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), whose Women's Defense Forces (HPJ) are an all-female unit. Image: © Valentina Sinis, from The Last Butterflies.About InCadaqués Fondation Desperados Bourse de soutien 2026artCamille Gendron Simon Lazarus 84 Nelio Riad YseultBourse de soutienCamille Gendron, Simon Lazarus 84, Nelio, Riad, and Yseult are the five recipients of the first edition of the Bourse de soutien of the Fondation Desperados, a grant for urban art. United by an artistic practice rooted in the public sphere, the five awardees exemplify the diversity of contemporary urban art. All are currently undergoing a phase of evolution in their work, driven by research and experimentation. The grant is specifically designed to support these moments when an artist’s approach shifts in scale, medium, or method. Image: © Nelio, Buff Color Field, Rabat, Morocco, 2022.About the Fondation Desperados Bourse de soutien Hire Your Future! 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