Zurich Art Prize 2026: Rosa Barba

In 2026, the Zurich Art Prize, awarded annually by Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd, goes to Rosa Barba (b. in Agrigento, Sicily). This makes her the 19th winner of the renowned award. Worth a total of CHF 130,000 from 2026 onwards, the prize consists of a CHF 100,000 budget for the production of a solo exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv and CHF 30,000 in prize money.

Rosa Barba’s work fluctuates between film, sculpture and installation, whereby the boundaries are always fluid. Processes of transformation, perception and incorporation, both in a material and conceptual sense, are her central themes. Her characteristic interest in linking art and science manifests itself both in her film work and in her engagement with landscapes, or so-called ‘future ecologies’. In the past, her gaze often turned to the desert – a space between emptiness, memory and imaginative projection.

Her filmic works often begin like documentaries, but then drift into fictional spheres. Reality becomes narrative material that is constantly reshaping itself. The central factor is always the specific location, along with its markings, stories and urgent political (often precarious) dimensions. These parameters, which Barba sees as archive material, are not just used for reconstruction, but actively reinterpreted and transferred to new contexts. Thus, this artist allows us to immerse ourselves in ‘open archive structures’, as she calls them, which manifest themselves in expansive projections between matter and concept. Language and poetics also play an important role here.

One typical feature of Barba’s work is the visualisation of filmmaking technology. It is not only about movement within the picture and the mobility of the image, but also about the kinetic potential of the presentation itself. Projectors, film reels, light beams and radiation (be it artificial or natural) are integral components of the installation and become sculptural figures. Performative potential is tested, expanded and exhausted. This results in installations that resemble landscapes themselves: Light, sound, movement and technical equipment form immaterial and tangible structures. They invite the onlooker to not only observe them, but also to walk through and explore them. In this way, Barba extends the filmic space into the physical environment.

The Zurich Art Prize jury was particularly impressed by Rosa Barba’s conceptual way of working, which is markedly based on the respective space and thus leads to extremely diverse results.

Barba studied theatre and film in Erlangen, Germany, from 1993 to 1995 and attended the Academy of Media Arts Cologne from 1995 to 2000. She has been artist-in-residence at Atelier Calder, France, at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, and at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (selection).

Barba can look back on numerous international solo and group exhibitions, for instance at the following museums: the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2025); MALI Museo, Peru (2024); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2024); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023); Tate Modern, London (2023); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2021); Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2017); Vienna Secession (2017); and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2016). Works by Barba were also exhibited at the 53rd and 56th Venice Biennale, and at the 2013 Performa Biennial (selection).

Barba has been Full Professor of Art in Space and Time at the ETH Zurich Department of Architecture since 2023.

The jury for the 2026 Zurich Art Prize consisted of: Sabine Schaschl, director of Museum Haus Konstruktiv (chair); Carin Gantenbein, head of professional liability at Zurich Insurance Company Ltd in Zurich; Matthias Mühling, director of Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Filipa Oliveira, director of Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Lisbon; and Stella Rollig, CEO and scientific director at the museum Belvedere, Vienna.

The Zurich Art Prize is part of Zurich Insurance Company Ltd’s commitment to culture.