Turner art prize goes to Mark Wallinger

LIVERPOOL - Artist Mark Wallinger, famed for re-creating a one-man protest against the Iraq War, won the coveted Turner prize on Monday and pleaded "Bring home the troops."

When short-listed for the 25,000 pound award, Wallinger submitted a film of himself dressed as a bear prowling Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie for 10 nights in a row.

But the 48-year-old artist is most famous for "State Britain," a meticulous reconstruction of the peace camp set up outside parliament in London by anti-Iraq war protester Brian Haw.

Wallinger, presented with the prize by Hollywood star and keen art collector Dennis Hopper, seized the opportunity to make his own protest against Britain's involvement in the war.

"Bring home the troops, give us back our rights, trust the people," he said after being picked for one of the art world's most controversial prizes.

"Brian Haw is a most remarkable man who has waged a tireless campaign against the folly and hubris of our government's foreign policy," he said.

"For six and a half years he has remained steadfast in Parliament Square, the last dissenting voice in Britain."

Wallinger, the bookmaker's favourite who grabbed all the headlines when submitting his bear film as his shortlist offering for exhibition, landed the Turner for his whole body of work but said afterwards "I won for State Britain."

The prize invariably stirs up a hornet's nest of controversy among critics. Fans hail the Turner as cutting edge Britart, critics mock it as a pretentious travesty.

The Turner took to the hometown of the Beatles for the first time as the Tate Liverpool museum hosted the prize and launched the northern English city's year as European capital of culture.

The Turner thrives on picking offbeat winners.

One of the most famous winners was Damien Hirst's pickled cow in 1995. Chris Ofili daubed his 1998 winning entries with elephant dung.

In 2001, the prize was given to Martin Creed who triumphed with an empty room containing a light that switched on and off.

Transvestite potter Grayson Perry turned up to collect his 2003 prize in a frilly Shirley Temple dress.