Louis-Cyprien Rials wins SAM 2017 award

In one year already, SAM Art Projects will blow out its tenth candle. The non-profit organization created by Sandra Hegedüs is constantly creating synergies between North and South, East and West in the field of contemporary art, outside the major centres of the international market. Each year, its scientific committee, notably composed of Jean-Hubert Martin, its president, Jean de Loisy, Marie-Ann Yemsi, or the director of the MAC Lyon Thierry Raspail, selects five artists whose projects are directed towards non-Western countries. The organisation has notably supported artist Mel O’Callaghan, on display at the Palais de Tokyo this year, and more recently the Algerian Massinissa Selmani, its latest winner. This week at the Tokyo Art Club, young Louis-Cyprien Rials was declared the winner of the SAM 2017 award for “Wakaliwood”, his photographic project in Uganda. He thus won an endowment of 20,000 euros and the opportunity to present his work at an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo scheduled for 2019.