Established in 1982 on the initiative of Philippe Nordmann, the Manor Award now stands as not only one of the most prestigious and coveted prizes, but also one of the most effective means of promotion on the contemporary Swiss art scene. With a presence in twelve Swiss cities and regions, the award targets artists under 40 years of age across the full spectrum of visual arts. The objective of the prize, awarded every two years, is to offer a wider audience to the work of artists who have not yet gained renown, thereby adding a significant impetus to their artistic careers.

This exhibition on the occasion of the 5th edition of the Manor Ticino Award, is comprised of a series of paintings by Marco Scorti, the young Ticinese artist born in Lugano in 1987 who currently divides his time between Ticino and Geneva, the city where he studied art and received his Diploma from the Haute École d’Art et Design in 2013. Since graduating, his work has rapidly attracted growing interest, received major awards and lead to him joining a select group of just ten artists under 30 years who have received the Kiefer-Hablitzel Prize. The mundane, anonymous spaces of everyday life, on the boundaries of urbanised space, lie at the heart of Scorti’s pictorial research. Created from collages and mental reconstructions, these real-time spaces become, thanks, in no small part, to his technical mastery, scenes of mysterious, suspended narration from which the human figure is completely absent. The exhibition includes a number of works realized by the artist especially for this occasion.