Winner of the Baloise Art Prize 2011.

The jury described their decision as follows: "In his films Ben Rivers explores forgotten places and biographies. His practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society, the raw film footage provides Rivers with a starting point for creating oblique narratives imagining alternative existences in marginal worlds. Rivers uses near-antique cameras and hand develops the 16 mm film, which shows the evidence of the elements it has been exposed to – the materiality of this medium forming part of the narrative."

In "Sack Barrow," 2011, Rivers has filmed the final days of an electro-plating factory in London. His film distills the destiny of an obsolete industrial world in singularly poetic, impressive images. The artist has produced an eloquent portrait of a vanishing age.