This year's Turner Prize split four ways as nominees vote against a single winner

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani joined forces to write to the competition's panel, asking that they consider awarding the prize as a "collective" instead.

The joint letter said: "At this time of political crisis in Britain and much of the world, when there is already so much that divides and isolates people and communities, we feel strongly motivated to use the occasion of the Prize to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity – in art as in society."

The jury unanimously decided to honour that request and revealed the move at a ceremony in Margate last night.

The jury praised the artists for their commitment to the collective power of art. In a statement, they said: "At our meeting today, we were presented with the letter from the artists and unanimously took the decision to agree to their request. We are honoured to be supporting this bold statement of solidarity and collaboration in these divided times. Their symbolic act reflects the political and social poetics that we admire and value in their work."

Nominated work includes Abu Hamden's video recreation of the noise heard inside a Syrian prison, and Cammock's solo show, The Long Note, which explores the history and role of women in the civil rights movement in Derry Londonderry. Also, Murillo's haunting human effigies that consider his own experience of displacement and globalisation, and Shani's giant sculptural installations inspired by a 15th-century feminist text.

Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize jury, said this year's nominated artists certainly gave the panel "a lot to think about". He also noted that the move is "very much in the spirit of these artists' work to challenge convention, to resist polarised world views, and to champion other voices.

"The jury all felt that this made the collective a worthy winner of the Turner Prize."