Meet The Winners of This Year’s IBB Prize

A boy is standing in a barren room: the floor is covered with a grey carpet, and there is a ping pong table in the corner while a colorful world map hangs on the wall in the background. With one hand he is trying to catch a frisbee, with the other one he is holding a snow-white mask that hides his face. This picture is part of the series “Brother”, with which UdK alumni Louisa Boeszoermeny just won this year’s IBB Prize for photography.

Together with the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft (KHG), the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) nominates UdK graduates every year with the criteria of the graduation not being more than five years ago. The aim of this initiative is to support young artists by giving them a place where their work can be exhibited and seen. This year’s jury consisted of photo artists Sven Marquardt and Kristian Schuller as well as art historian Lena Winter.

The winning series “Brother” is a concept work, including analog and digital photography, that addresses the topic of masculinity today. For the project, Boezoermeny joined young boys in the city and accompanied them on their way to finding themselves while growing up. It’s a work about familiarity, leaning on, reliability and standing up for each other – it is about own strength and vulnerability at the same time.

Lee Everett Thieler, on the other hand, received the recognition award for her works “Screens” and “Holding my Own”. “Screens” shows various digital photographs of a laptop screen, compound to intimate collages. The series depicts snapshots and brief glimpses into the artist’s life with all its ups and downs. By showing her room and sharing raw parts of it, she gives an intimate insight. “Holding My Own”, consists of analog prints that were transferred to photographic paper using negative scans.

To celebrate both awarded Up-and-coming artists, IBB hosted an opening event at their Atrium, where Louisa and Lee’s works can be admired until the 4th of January.