18-Member Collective Wins Turner Prize

Assemble is an unlikely choice for the art prize for a few reasons: they do not consider themselves artists or what they do to be art; they are a group rather than an individual, as the other finalists and previous winners have been; and their work – whether one calls it art or not – exists in communities, well outside of the galleries that traditionally display art.

Assemble beat out three female artists with their feet firmly planted in the world of art: Bonnie Camplin, with an audio/video piece that featured people ranting about conspiracy theories; Janice Kerbel, with an operatic work that required her to learn music theory; and Nicole Wermers, with an installation that melded modern furniture and fur coats to prompt discussions on gender in design.

Assemble wins £25,000 for the Granby Four Streets project, which is the most ambitious of the bunch and of course the most architectural, making their victory one that will ruffle feathers in the art world inside and outside the UK. For the Turner Prize exhibition, which is on display in Glasgow until 16 January 2016, they created a full-scale model of one of the houses they have been fixing up with the help of residents, and they filled it with objects – door handles, ceramics, stools, railings, etc. – that the residents have been trained to make for themselves and to sell to pay for the repairs to their derelict homes.

Per a statement from the Tate, the jury* awarded the prize to Assemble for their "work in tandem with communities [that realizes] a ground up approach to regeneration, city planning and development in opposition to corporate gentrification." Further, Assemble "draw on long traditions of artistic and collective initiatives that experiment in art, design and architecture. In doing so they offer alternative models to how societies can work. The long term collaboration between Granby Four Streets and Assemble shows the importance of artistic practice being able to drive and shape urgent issues in the post-industrial era."

The Turner Prize winners were announced by musician Kim Gordon during a ceremony on 7 December at Tramway, Glasgow, which can be seen below.

*The 2015 Turner Prize jury was made up of:

• Alistair Hudson, Director, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
• Kyla McDonald, Artistic Director, Glasgow Sculpture Studios
• Joanna Mytkowska, Director, Museum Sztuki Nowoczesnej
• Jan Verwoert, critic and curator
• Chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain