Berlin Art Prize, Installation view, 2015. Image: Joseph Kadow, Timothy Schaumburg
Post-Gallery Weekend, Berlin’s art scene falls into a comfortable standstill while the dust settles. Yet, not all is quiet in the Hauptstadt: last Friday, the 2015 edition of the Berlin Art Prize was awarded to three of Berlin’s exciting young artists.
Founded in 2012 by Sophie Jung, Zoë Claire Miller, Alicia Reuter and Ulrich Wulff, the Berlin Art Prize floats freely from any institutional or corporate influence. A self-declared “meticulous cover version of a classical art prize,” the prize includes a catalogue, a residency in Greece, Yael Bartana’s Vulcan-salute-in-gold as a trophy and, in true Berlin fashion, cash money.
To everyone’s surprise, the panel of Monica Bonvicini, Elise Lammer, Natasha Ginwala, Kitty Kraus and Willem de Rooij unanimously eschewed the three categories suggested by organisers in favour of three equal awards. Of the 29 nominees, the jury selected Rike Horb.’s “Flexible Walls/Gummimauer No.2”, Julian Weber’s “the tourist” and Miriam Yammad’s “Mimesis I-II” as the winners of the 3rd Berlin Art Prize. While a friend of Yammad’s accepted the award in her absence, Sleek was able to steal Weber and Horb. away from their friends and family just after the ceremony at DISTRICT Berlin.
Rike Horb., Flexible Walls/ Gummimauer No.2. Courtesy of The Berlin Art Prize
Sleek It’s a huge accomplishment to win the Berlin Art Prize, but it’s also an incredible opportunity: as winners, you have been offered the residency in Greece.
Rike Horb. AAH! I forgot about that! We’re going to go together then?
Julian Weber I think so!
RH YES! This is crazy; this is great. It makes so much sense.
JW: Why does it make so much sense?
RH Two years ago, all my work was inspired by the Greek mythologies and the Greek approach to architecture. Thank you for reminding me!
JW In my piece for the Berlin Art Prize, I also had Dionysus–the party God! I have a little video of him in the show.
RH In general, though, it’s never that bad to go to Greece.
Julian Weber, the tourist. Courtesy of The Berlin Art Prize
Have you started making plans for what you would do in Greece if you won?
JW I haven’t thought about it yet since I was thinking about what I wanted to enter in the Berlin Art Prize. My staged pieces involve a lot of people – and a stage. I wasn’t interested in copy-and-pasting it from the stage to DISTRICT, so I wanted to do something new. I wanted to direct the situation, the opening. I am happiest about making visual art again, as I studied visual art and then went into choreography and dance, but I have only been working in dance recently.
RH You’re going back to the roots of what you studied.
JW You could say that. I came from there, and then I went away to stage work. I’m not combining visual arts and choreography, but rather confronting physicality and the resistance of the material. There was a time when I felt that they excluded each other: it could be this or that. I feel like there’s less of a confrontation, though, and think about how they can emphasise each other.
RH I’m also really looking forward to Greece. I want to go to all the houses that have been abandoned and reinvest in them. The political status of Greece right now–this is all footing for my architectural approach. I can picture myself with different personal histories about changing spaces. Investors come and are looking to buy houses that have been abandoned. This confrontation between hope and the hopeless in terms of architecture is what I’m looking for.
Berlin Art Prize, Installation view, 2015. Image: Joseph Kadow, Timothy Schaumburg. Courtesy of The Berlin Art Prize
Where do you contextualise yourself in terms of the art world?
RH For me, contextualising yourself is a filter: you reduce yourself to one context. I get inspired not only by contemporary art, but also art in the Sixties and the Eighties. There are things I look back to and look at, and they have a new relevance today. I want to investigate the relevance of these eras in terms of today, as we live in such a different age and era, production-wise. I think it’s important to be aware of all the industrial and technological productions.
JW I am inspired by artists in both the visual arts and dance – maybe a little more in the visual arts than in dance. I worked for Meg Stuart and I think she is an important reference, as her work influenced mine a lot. It’s funny, though. For this piece, I have taken a lot from what is around me; I’m using the environment and the artworks around mine as sources for my movement. We’re used to looking at art from a distance: cold. My idea was to make the viewer part of our scenery and fully use what was already there.
Berlin Art Prize, Installation view, 2015. Image: Joseph Kadow, Timothy Schaumburg. Courtesy of The Berlin Art Prize
Anything else you would like to add?
RH: I feel like you should always add something at the end… but… Punkt!
JW Punkt.
Interview by Nathan Ma
The group exhibition of all 29 Berlin-based nominees on display at DISTRICT Berlin until 4 July 2015. A full calendar of events presented by the Berlin Art Prize at DISTRICT Berlin can be found here.
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