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Turner prize 2019 review – all aboard Margate’s seaside special

Turner Contemporary, Margate
From a wild take on feminism to a study of incarceration – this year’s shortlisted artists focus on a host of social issues

It’s not usually difficult to nab a seat on the high-speed train from London to Margate. This week, though, you might have had to shove aside the stream of art critics piling into Kent for the Turner prize exhibition. To add to the congestion, shortlisted artist Oscar Murillo decided to populate his portion of the gallery with a crowd of 20 lifesize papier-mache effigies. They travelled in on the commuter train on Tuesday, each one cheerfully escorted by a volunteer.

If you happened to have witnessed the scene at the station – the bedraggled puppets variously lugged and wheeled along a drizzly seafront – you’d be forgiven for mistaking the whole thing for a soggy carnival. Murillo draws from traditional Colombian festivities, where effigies are set alight to mark the new year. But here at Turner Contemporary they make for a more complicated viewing experience.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2mrsSXq

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