In her five-minute pastiche, The Victim, Keren Cytter exploits one film genre after another. Melodrama, thriller, family series and soap opera all figure in a story that links five characters. Relationships are revealed at breathtaking speed, only to shift and change the next instant. The nature of the characters and their function within the narrative fragments are in constant flux. Alternating between choral sprechgesang and duets, entrances follow exits, exposition follows faux denouement and confession follows morality until such confusion reigns that not even the characters themselves seem to know what game they are playing: possibly a drama of perfectly ordinary insanity in the mirror of fiction.

In addition to the cash prize, Baloise acquires a group of works by the award winners and donates them to two important European museums. The Victim (2006) as well as Dreamtalk (2005) were presented to the collection of the mumok Wien.

Cytter is best known for her textually based video art. Through the development and execution of Cytter's unique style, she has found herself a niche in the art world which has brought her more and more critical attention and made her one of the most renowned artists of her generation.

Elisabeth Kaufmann gallery, Zurich

Jury members:
Patricia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Chairwoman of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino; Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemueseum, Eindhoven; Christoph Heinrich, Director of the Galerie der Gegenwart,  Hamburger Kunsthalle; Edelbert Koeb, Director, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig; and Martin Schwander, Fine Art Advisor of Baloise, Chairman of the jury.