And the winner is ...

A second version of Return of the Real is in production in Bilbao, and Collins plans a third with British participants. He has built a fully functioning office within the Turner prize show at the Tate, called shady lane productions and staffed five days a week.

There may well be those who feel their lives have been ruined by their participation in the Turner prize, which itself includes a modicum of television exposure. Will the Turner contenders be queuing, in the full gaze of visitors to the show, to tell the stories of their ruin for Collins's project, after the winner is announced? Who should win anyway? Who is making the best art, and what does that mean nowadays? Abts and Collins are the most developed in my view. I think Collins has made more concise and telling works elsewhere. Abts' quiet and disturbing paintings seem utterly right and unexpected. They ought to win.