The PERSPEKTIVEN Art Prize has become firmly established in Munich’s cultural landscape. With a total prize fund of 10,000 euros, it ranks amongst the most prestigious awards supporting young artists in the city, recognising outstanding artistic development. This year’s nominees are Astasiia Batishcheva, Sara Mayoral Jimenez, Béla Juttner, Matthias Mross and Tatjana Vall.
Our times are characterised by increasing fragmentation and, at the same time, a compulsion towards constant interconnectedness. Discourses are becoming more diverse, social circles are drifting apart, whilst economic, institutional and state frameworks are becoming increasingly restrictive. Under such conditions, cooperation appears less as an option and increasingly as a structural necessity. Where, however, fruitful and mutually respectful collaboration succeeds, new scope for action opens up for all those involved. Informal networks, institutional alliances and private partnerships are what enable the very spaces in which artistic work can become visible, open to discussion and effective. The current edition of the PERSPEKTIVEN Sponsorship Award is taking place in just such a space, which is itself part of a fundamental process of transformation. Set in a post-industrial context, Die Schleicher Kunst Fabrik offers a temporary venue designed to foster young art and culture.
The exhibition features works by Astasiia Batishcheva, Sara Mayoral Jimenez, Béla Juttner, Matthias Mross and Tatjana Vall, which engage in various ways with questions of image, materiality, collective memory and social inscription. Whilst their works are not linked by a common medium, they are united by a precise interest in the structures that shape perception, memory and our social realities.
Astasiia Batishcheva works at the intersections of photography and the archive. She examines the intangible Soviet legacy as a visual inscription of political systems. Her projects combine documentary strategies with an analytical reflection on cultural spaces of memory. Biological processes, performative elements and material transformations are interwoven in Sara Mayoral Jimenez’s installation-based settings. Her works transform classical vanitas motifs into dynamic models of transience and cyclical renewal. Béla Juttner uses textile media and performance to examine mechanisms of social attribution and identity formation. In his works, personal narratives and collective projections overlap and intertwine.
Matthias Mross distils observations of urban environments into figurative visual spaces that oscillate between documentary reference and painterly construction. His works translate social reality into striking visual narratives. Tatjana Vall develops sculptural and installation-based systems that combine technical, scientific and historical references. Her works make it possible to experience the complex networks of relationships between people, technology and space, and encourage viewers to redefine their own perspective.
Sara Mayoral Jimenez was awarded the Jury Prize, whilst Matthias Mroos received the People’s Choice Award.
