David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin have won the 2026 Prix Marcel Duchamp, France's most prestigious contemporary art award. The announcement came on the evening of October 22 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, which has hosted the prize exhibition since 2025 because the Centre Pompidou is shut for a multi-year renovation. The 26th edition of the prize carries €90,000 in total, with €35,000 going to the winning artist.

The Belgian-Luxembourgish pair, who have collaborated since 2006 and live between Paris and Siena, were the lowest-profile contenders on the shortlist. They beat photographer and filmmaker Laura Henno, the artist, performer and writer Josèfa Ntjam, and the visual artist Joël Andrianomearisoa. Their first major solo museum exhibition took place at MAC Val in Vitry-sur-Seine in 2020, and in 2024 they turned the tower of Fort Saint-Jean in Marseille into a glowing lighthouse driven by the eye movements of a musician living with motor neurone disease.

Their winning project, titled "5,376 years, 1,892 months, 1,110 days, 1,201 hours," addresses the fragile struggle with substance dependence. Carnival coin-pusher machines are filled with sobriety tokens of the kind support groups give to mark time in recovery, while a person in recovery controls the corridor lighting remotely, adjusting it in real time in response to moments of craving or pride.

The jury was chaired by Xavier Rey, director of the Musée national d'art moderne, and included Tate Modern director Karin Hindsbo and Louvre president Christophe Leribault alongside artists Kader Attia and Berlinde De Bruyckere. The duo, represented by the Paris gallery MFC-Michèle Didier, were championed by Brother Marc Chauveau, a Dominican friar and exhibition curator. Shortlisted artists also receive residencies at Sèvres and with Villa Albertine in the United States, and the exhibition remains open free of charge until February 7, 2027.