XR-History Award - The winner is...

The exhibition project ‘Loot. 10 Stories’ reveals that looting is an integral part of the centuries-old history of art and material cultural assets. Rule, occupation and violence created opportunities at various historical moments to rob owners art and cultural artefacts and transport objects, many of which are now in museums, across vast distances to the most remote locations.

Every two years since 2022, the XR-History Award of the eCommemoration programme honours a project that uses immersive technologies and new media to explore historical narratives, commemoration or practices of remembrance culture with an artistic approach. According to Nadine Isabelle Henrich, Head Curator of the House of Photography at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, this year’s partner of the award, the award can ‘focus on projects that open up a dynamisation of historical narratives through spatial, non-linear experiences’. Submitted projects are often an offer to ‘read history(ies) experimentally, transhistorically and with multiple perspectives’. The intervention ‘Loot. 10 Stories’ beat more than 70 international submissions. The concept of ‘Loot. 10 Stories’ is to visualise the looting history of 10 objects through video works, virtual reality installations and with the help of scenography and original objects. Esther Wright, Lecturer in Digital History and jury member of this year’s XR-History Award, emphasises that in ‘Loot. 10 Stories”, extended reality is used not only as a playful element, but also for a specific purpose, to reveal what is hidden behind the objects.

Körber-Stiftung and Deichtorhallen will celebrate the winning project with a diverse programme at the XR-History Festival on 6 June, as the award will be used as an opportunity to focus on the versatility, diversity of formats and polyphony of remembrance culture. The open-air festival begins at 5 p.m. on the Freiwiese at the Deichtorhallen.