Hodler Prize 003 Winners
After deliberation, the third Hodler Prize was awarded jointly to three narrative works: the podcast “Otherworld” by Jack Wagner, the video game “Skate Story” by Sam Eng, and the novel “Jaw Filler” by Charlie Markbreiter and Maz Murray. A special Witness Award is given to the documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka” directed by Mstyslav Chernov.
They will split the prize, which will be awarded in Bitcoin—the asset that symbolizes our commitment to value and the long term.
We would like to thank Ledger and CoinShares once again for their support from the very beginning, which makes the Hodler Prize possible every year, as well as the Centre Pompidou and Maison Dices for our incredible first editorial collaboration.
Finally, the Hodler Prize relies entirely on nine authors, whose talent, intelligence, and curiosity bring together a committee that is as demanding as it is enthusiastic every year. For this third edition, we cannot express enough how fortunate we are to have Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ottessa Moshfegh, Emanuele Coccia, Precious Okoyomon, Philippe Parreno, Alice Bucknell, Mark Alizart, Jean-Max Colard and Théo Casciani with us, and we look forward to seeing you next year for the 4th edition of the Hodler Prize.
Winner ‘OTHERWORLD’
Author: Jack Wagner
Selected by Ottessa Moshfegh
Type: Podcast
Publisher: Otherworld
« Otherworld demonstrates a rare narrative rigor in the way it treats personal testimony. Each episode explores the faithful boundaries of narrative nonfiction and insists that uncertainty itself can be a legitimate and compelling subject. Rather than sensationalizing the paranormal, the podcast is interested in what it means to live with an experience that seems impossible to assimilate into conventional language or logic. Through careful editing and sustained attention to voice, each episode preserves the integrity of the storyteller while refusing easy conclusions, allowing the voice to remain intact while situating the account within a larger emotional and intellectual context. What emerges are not spooky ghost stories, but rigorous acts of self-examination. I love it because it consistently draws me into a state of abstract openness, and makes me ponder whether experience itself is the vulnerable life-force we call “truth.” Ottessa Moshfegh
Winner ‘SKATE STORY’
Author: Sam Eng
Selected by Alice Bucknell
Type: Video Game
Publisher: Devolver Digital
« In Sam Eng’s darkly scintillating skater game, you play as a demon built from glass and pain who is hellbent on eating the moon. Set in a glittering dystopian world that riffs on the artist’s nuanced relationship with New York City, the game hard forks from the skating typology, offering up an evocative lore that’s equal turns satirical and tender. Set against a moody original score by Blood Cultures, the holographic, hallucinatory landscapes hand-built by the solo artist-developer leave a lasting impression, as does the game’s script and its cast of rogue characters, making this one of the best indie games in recent memory. » Alice Bucknell
Winner‘JAW FILLER’
Authors : Maz Murray and Charlie Markbreiter
Selected by Precious Okoyomon
Type: Book
Publisher : Montez Press
‘I loved the timeliness of this book and the two authors together making a world not so far from our own, where the digital realm could actually be a form of freedom. It thinks through the rise of anti-trans culture and the internet not only as a place of safety but maybe a new body. It was so fun to read and I love two people writing a book together. So genius.’ Precious Okoyomon
‘You don’t need dysphoria to be trans. You don’t need a body at all.’
« When Detective Sean Hastings is asked to investigate the disappearance of Character, he enters the First Trans Commune in Sim World, a virtual reality cult community imagineered by transfluencer Kevin, and bankrolled by a mysterious tech company, VSI.
Haunted by the death of his cis gay guy college bestie and their shared diasporic dilemmas, Taylor, VSI’s token QTPOC face, sees potential in Kevin’s ability to Release trauma into the virtual world. Meanwhile, Casey, Sean’s ex, hopes Releasing will cure their Long Plague. Then femme fatale Mitchelle reappears. And the plot twists. A pulpy neo-noir romp through the anxiously assimilated transmasculine id, Jaw Filler asks: who is VSI, and what do they really want? Can you be your own dad? And if Character’s mind is trapped in Sim World, then where is his body? » Montez Press
Special Witness Award ‘2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA’
Author: Mstyslav Chernov
Selected by Mark Alizart
Type: Film
Production: Associated Press & Frontline
“2000 Meters to Andriivka is a documentary film produced and directed by Mstyslav Chernov, a war correspondent for the Associated Press. Essentially composed of body-cam footage recorded by Ukrainian soldiers in combat, it follows a Ukrainian platoon during a mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka in 2023, during the counter-offensive that was launched into the second year of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Notwithstanding the breathtaking quality of the imbedded reporting and the tribute it pays to the courage of the advancing soldiers, it serves as a stark reminder that, for all the drones, Starlink enabled communications and AI much talked about in this war, the crude reality of fighting on its frontlines is still one of a man-to-man combat eerily reminiscent of the first world war slaughterhouse.
I chose 2000 Meters to Andriivka because it demonstrates that no progress has unfortunately been achieved by humanity in the first decades of our new millennium, neither in terms of technology or morality, – yet.” Mark Alizart
Since 1977, the Centre Pompidou has been a hub of vibrant, engaged culture—a multidisciplinary center deeply rooted in the city and open to the world. The Centre Pompidou is undergoing a transformation that will allow it to remain active during the renovation of its building, until its reopening in 2030. At the same time, the spirit of the Centre Pompidou will be embodied in numerous partner venues throughout France and internationally, thanks to the Constellation program. The installation of the Centre Pompidou cinemas at mk2 Bibliothèque × Centre Pompidou establishes a new venue for thinking about and sharing moving images in a different way, where the dialogue between creation, society, and thought continues, far from the building but at the heart of what makes up the spirit of the Centre.
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