Exile Visual Arts Award

Shortlist and Exile Visual Arts Award Special Prizes

In addition to the prizewinner, the shortlist includes five other artists whose works have attracted particular attention: Dania González Sanabria from Cuba, Jeanno Gaussi from Afghanistan, Khaled Barakeh from Syria, Mark Chehodaiev from Ukraine and Rana Matloub from Iraq.

Due to the large number of impressive submissions in various visual disciplines, two additional special prizes (Exile Visual Arts Award Special Prizes), endowed with €5,000 each, were awarded for new, transformative perspectives on the topic of exile.

The two special prizes go to Dania González Sanabria and Jeanno Gaussi:

Dania González Sanabria (born 1990, Cuba) addresses universal experiences such as loneliness and alienation, which are intensified by uprooting, in her performance ‘The visitor’. A visitor wrapped in wool cautiously roams the city, appearing strange but mostly going unnoticed as he becomes part of the social space. States of isolation become visible, emphasised by the lack of communication. The jury praised the work for its depth and the symbolic connection between individual loneliness and the collective challenges of exile and migration. A central feature of González Sanabrias’ work is its process-oriented approach. She integrates materials and objects that are connected to their origin and personal experiences. At the same time, she uses organic materials that are emblematic of transience and transformation.

Jeanno Gaussi (born 1973, Afghanistan) explores the concept of belonging, the mechanisms of memory, the search for identity and the associated social and cultural processes in her multifaceted, often installative works. Her work ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’ (2023) refers to the fact that she spent part of her childhood in exile in Delhi. She was fascinated by the colourful glass bangles in the bazaars there. In 2022, she inherited the bangles from her mother and used them to create ten glass bottles containing notes about places of memory with her mother. The ten objects, in the form of a message in a bottle, convey experiences of separation and loss, but also the possibility of preservation through transformation.

Also on the shortlist:

Khaled Barakeh (born 1976, Syria) is a conceptual artist and founder of coculture, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting cultural producers in exile. His socially engaged art project ‘Stitched Stories’ (2023) was created in collaboration with asylum seekers living in emergency accommodation in Ireland and local fashion designers. Donated items of clothing were redesigned during a workshop that lasted several weeks, thus becoming a means of self-expression. By adapting to their own bodies, personalities and cultural identities, the garments tell stories; they express lived experiences and become a medium of self-empowerment in a new reality.

Mark Chehodaiev (born 1997, Ukraine) explores how to feel at home in a place that is not designed for it. His photo series ‘Hotel Europa’ deals with tourist facilities in Austria that have been converted into accommodation for refugees from Ukraine. Chehodaiev’s photographs show the living environments of people who lack a safe home. In the images, the viewer encounters objects that have been used to redesign the temporary environment and adapt it to everyday needs. The refugees live in the former hotel for an unspecified period of time. The work thus visualises waiting as a central component of the experience of flight. At the same time, a reference to earlier exiles can be found in the work and the title of Chehodaiev’s photo series can be associated with Vicki Baum’s exile novels ‘Hotel Shanghai’ (1939) and ‘Hotel Berlin’ (1943).

Rana Matloub (born 1975, Iraq) is a freelance artist and art teacher. With her multimedia work ‘Heimat│en’ she advocates an understanding of home in the plural. This is expressed in her various artistic approaches. Her partly autobiographical works negotiate multiple affiliations, as in the plant pots, which have the shape of an Arabic star or a cross – the artist comes from a Christian-Arab family. The pain of separation and exile and the hope of healing and ‘arrival’ are also addressed. This is expressed, for example, in an installation with green tomatoes that continue to ripen even when they are separated from the mother plant. Matloub’s works are eclectic, associative and offer a multitude of approaches to the complex experience of exile and migration.

About the Exile Visual Arts Award

The freedom of art and artistic expression are among the fundamental rights in democratic societies. When these rights are suspended, artists are often forced to flee and seek protection from persecution in exile. The experiences of persecution, flight and exile can find expression in very different forms of artistic expression.

The Exile Visual Arts Award honours works by artists who have experienced exile and who deal with their home country, with flight, expulsion and exile in the visual arts, conveying unusual perspectives on essential questions such as identity, conflict, belonging, community, individuality, foreignness, attributions, injuries, fractures or transitions.

The works eligible for the award include the visual arts, such as painting, graphics, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography and new media. Applications were possible from July to August 2024.

The Exile Visual Arts Award, endowed with 10,000 euros, is offered by the Körber Foundation and supported by the Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin.

The jury for the 2024 call for applications

Prof. Dr. Burcu Dogramaci
Professor of Art History, University of Munich

Dr. Barbara Hess
Art historian and freelance author

Farkhondeh Shahroudi
Artist and winner of the Exile Visual Arts Award 2023

Cornelia Vossen
Curator and Artistic Director of the Exilmuseum Berlin Foundation (until December 2024)

Sven Tetzlaff
Director of Democracy and Cohesion, Körber Foundation

Dr. Sonja Wimschulte
Programme Director Exile, Körber Foundation

[The two representatives of the Körber Foundation have a joint vote.]