The winners of the 2025 Piket Art Prizes were announced last week at the Theater aan het Spui in The Hague: Carmen Roca Igual (Painting), Chandenie Gobardhan (Dance), and Kollektief op Kracht (Theatre). They will receive a cash prize of €6,000 and a unique award, the Hammer, created by artist Joep van Lieshout. The Piket Jury Prize goes to Cees Debets, Director of the Theater Department at Het Nationale Theater. The Piket Art Prizes are awarded annually to promising young professional artists in the fields of painting, dance, and theatre.
“This year, once again, the expert jury, chaired by Majel Blonden, is bringing young talent to the attention of a wider audience,” says Marie Jeanne de Rooij, director of the Piket Art Prizes. “Talent that is often already making significant progress, garnering admiration, challenging, and sparking curiosity. Piket Art Prizes is pleased to be able to provide the vibrant experimental drive and blossoming promise of the three winners and the nominees with significant financial support , paving the way to a rewarding career in the arts.”
Attractive and layered visual art
Painting jury members Pietertje van Splunter (artist and co-founder of the artists’ initiative Quartair) and Johan Gustavsson (Experimental Art Space 1646, lecturer at the Royal Academy of Art, and curator of Prospects) are impressed with artist Carmen Roca Igual. “The jury appreciates the way Carmen Roca Igual combines research and imagination to capture the contradictions of contemporary digital life. Her ability to translate urgent cultural questions into engaging and multi-layered visual art makes us curious about her development in the coming years as one of the promising artists of her generation,” say Van Splunter and Gustavsson.
Treasure trove of movement techniques
Professional jury members Erik Kaiel (dance collective Arch8) and Mitchell-lee van Rooij (Korzo) call choreographer and dancer Chandenie Gobardhan “progressive, relevant, and refined.” “With her enormous wealth of diverse movement techniques and styles (Bollywood, Bharatanatyam, Hip Hop, House, Locking, and Modern), Chandenie opens up new and refreshing perspectives, building bridges between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the past and the present,” according to the professional Dance jury.
‘Great theatre with limited resources’
The work of Kollektief op Kracht, which consists of director Nanine Kok and players/makers
Trix van Erkel, Jan Groenland, Jelle Huizinga, and Léon de Vrede are characterized by “a great sense of timing, humor, and craftsmanship.” “With minimal resources, they manage to evoke a world that is both absurd and relatable. They demonstrate that you can create great theater with limited resources,” say Theater jury members Joep Hendrikx (Poezieboys) and Nadine van Pinxteren (Het Nationale Theater en de Parade).
Piket Jury Prize: Cees Debets
The jury unanimously chose Cees Debets, director of the National Theatre, to receive the Piket Jury Prize. “Cees does considerably more than ‘just his job.’ He is a remarkable theatre director because he is always there. At every performance, no matter how small, he shows his face, always with infectious, genuine enthusiasm, ready to find something new and exciting every time. With that same enthusiasm, he connects with the audience, welcomes them, and gets them excited about the performance,” the jury stated.
Other nominees
Besides the winners, Livia Claesson and Jemima de Jonge were also nominated this year in the Painting category, Giulio Hoxhallari and Annabel Koele in the Dance category, and Hélène Vrijdag and Mike Zanting in the Theater category. They didn’t go home empty-handed either, receiving €3,000 and an award, the Hammer, from renowned artist Joep van Lieshout.
About the Piket Art Prizes
The Piket Art Prizes have been awarded since 2014 to young artists who have a connection to The Hague, either because they have flourished there or because their work makes a stimulating contribution to The Hague’s cultural scene. Their namesake, Frederik Hendrik Piket (1927-2011), a lawyer and member of the Senate for the CHU (later CDA), was a great lover of art and culture. After his death, a foundation was established to annually encourage promising professional artists up to the age of 30 with the Piket Art Prizes.
Featured photo: Cees Debets (Piket Jury Prize), bottom left Carmen Roca Igual (Painting), in the back Kollektief op Kracht (Theater), and on the right Chandenie Gobardhan (Dance). Photo: De Schaapjesfabriek