Ouborg Prize 2005: Ben van Os

The Ouborg Prize 2005: Ben van Os built Castles in the Air

29 October 2005 - 5 February 2006
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

The Ouborg Prize is awarded in alternate years to a Hague artist producing work of both local and national importance. Named after Hague artist Pieter Ouborg(1893-1956), it is the City of The Hague�s prize for the visual arts. The award comprises a sum of � 4750, an exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and a publication issued by Stroom Den Haag. Winner of this year�s Ouborg Prize is the versatile Dutch art director Ben van Os (b. 1944).

Ben van Os has won international renown as a cinematic art director. Over the last twenty years he has designed unforgettable sets for over sixty feature films and has twice been nominated for an Oscar: in 1994 together with Jan Roelfs for the design of Sally Potter�s Orlando and last year for his atmospheric work on Peter Webber�s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Ben van Os is best known for his partnership with director Peter Greenaway, whose weird and wonderful films ZOO (1985), Drowning by Numbers (1986), The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) and Prospero�s Books (1991) owe their reputation in part to the lavish but disconcerting sets designed by Ben van Os and his partner Jan Roelfs. Van Os has become famous for his baroque, dreamlike style of cinematic design.

In the exhibition, Van Os will present three tableaux that he has created using objects from the collections of the Gemeentemuseum and props he has used on film sets. The tableaux relate to three films: Eline Vere, Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. They will be accompanied by clips and stills from other films, chosen to illustrate Van Os�s offbeat approach.

In the past, the Ouborg Prize was awarded to Frans Zwartjes (1990), Wil Bouthoorn (1991), Gerard Fieret (1992), Lotti van der Gaag (1993), Tomas Rajlich (1994), Dick Raaijmakers (1995), Martin Rous (1996), Auke de Vries (1997). It then became a biennial prize and was awarded to Philip Akkerman (1999), Vojta Duk�t (2001) and Hans van der Pennen (2003).

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