With a light hand, Claire Hooper sketches a brief and trivial episode in the life of a young man with an immigrant background. The film NYX shows a night-time descent into the underground system of a metropolis. The homeward journey of a youngster turns into a horror trip through the disastrous combination of alcohol and drug intolerance. He is tormented by hallucinations: a kaleidoscope of visual memories that fuse with fragments of reality in the daily life of his peers. Disco girls morph into aggressive amazons, harmless buddies pack together into dangerous gangs, the ordinary slaughter of a goat condenses into a ritual act. But before any of these situations escalate into pure menace or absurd fantasy, external events keep jolting the protagonist back to the banality of the present.

In addition to the cash prize, Baloise acquires a group of works by the award winners and donates them to two important European museums. Hooper's work was presented to the collection of the mumok Wien.

Galerie Hollybush Gardens, London, UK

Jury members:
Ziba Ardalan de Weck, Director, Parasol unit, foundation for contemporary art, London; Petra Roettig, Curator, Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Chris Dercon, Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Edelbert Köb, Director, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna and Martin Schwander, Fine Art Advisor of the Baloise, Chairman of the jury.