Antoni Muntadas awarded Velásquez Prize

Spanish artist Antoni Muntadas was awarded the Velásquez Prize in the amount of 125,000 Euros that is granted by Spain¿s Ministry of Culture. A pioneer of video art and the new technologies, Muntadas received the award for his contribution to contemporary art through his conceptual work, in which he explores the mechanisms of power and the reality constructed by the mass media. In this, and, relying on video as his support, he addresses social, political, and mediatic problems. Muntadas has also received grants from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and was awarded prizes from the Laser d¿Or, Locarno, Switzerland, the Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, and in 2005 received the National Arts Prize. Living in New York since 1971, Muntadas teaches at the Center for Advanced Visual Art Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.