Turner Prize 2007

Mark Wallinger was shortlisted for State Britain at Tate Britain, a direct representation of the banners and paraphernalia of Brian Haw’s protest in Parliament Square. The jury commended its immediacy, visceral intensity and historic importance. The work combines a bold political statement with art’s ability to articulate fundamental human truths.

This was the first time the Prize had been held outside of London, forming part of Tate’s programme to celebrate Liverpool as European Capital of Culture 2008. 

• Zarina Bhimji – nominated
• Nathan Coley – nominated
• Mike Nelson – nominated
• Mark Wallinger – winner

Watch the Turner Prize nominee films:

• Nathan Coley
• Mike Nelson

• Fiona Bradley, Director of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
• Michael Bracewell, writer and critic
• Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator at the Studio Museum, Harlem
• Miranda Sawyer, freelance broadcaster and writer
• Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool (Chair)

The Turner Prize show has finally plucked up the courage to leave London. What a shame, then, to insult the good people of Liverpool with work that is banal, boring or just laughably bad.
Rachel Cooke, The Observer, Sunday 21 October 2007

Wallinger’s only piece of work here, the 2004-5 video Sleeper, is tremendous. It is also crazy: why would a grown man dress up in an unconvincing bear suit and spend night after night alone (give or take a discrete camera crew) in Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin - or anywhere else, come to that?
Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 22 October 2007

I am indebted to all those people who contributed to the making of State Britain. Brian Haw is a remarkable man who has waged a tireless campaign against the folly and hubris of our government's foreign policy. For six-and-a-half years he has remained steadfast in Parliament Square, the last dissenting voice in Britain. Bring home the troops, give us back our rights, trust the people.
Mark Wallinger speaking to the BBC, 2007