Nominees for the 2023 Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Artist Award
The Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Foundation is proud to announce the list of artists/artist groups who were chosen as a nominee for Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Artist Award. The Sussmann Foundation is a Vienna based foundation that gives grants and prizes to artists that do work that is politically committed to democracy and anti-fascism.
The winner artist(s) will be chosen from a shortlist of eight Artist(s) recommended by a diverse group of advisers who were selected based on their commitment to the principles of the Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Foundation and convey in their work the legacy of the Foundation. On May 1rst 2024, we will announce the winner on this website. The winner will receive a 5000 Euro award for their current artistic work.
List of Nominees 2019:
the anti war coalition
The project International Coalition of Cultural Workers in Solidarity WithUkraine (online platform antiwarcoalition.art) was a direct response of the project curatorial group to a new stage of the war, which began in Ukraine onFebruary 24, 2022. This fact, as well as the ambivalent position of Belarus in this war and ongoing repressions against people in Belarus, prompted the curatorial team: 7 Belarusian cultural workers radically changed the original idea of our project CELESTIAL RUNS. Drazdovich.TV, organizing the independent pavilion of New Belarus at 59th Biennale in Venice, which was seen as an opportunity not only to present independent Belarusian contemporary art to wide international audience, but mainly to support artists and culture workers, who has been arrested or imprisoned, forced to leave the country or still live and work in. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we have decided to unite Belarusian and international artists and cultural workers in support and solidarity with Ukraine. In mid-April the online platform antiwarcoalition.art was launched. At the same time two Ukrainian curators joined the working team. The project and its development is based on consolidation, solidarity and building a network of sustainable connections
and partnerships of cultural workers and institutions from all over the world in support of Ukraine and e focused on topics such as the definition and borders of today’s Europe, how countries that are geographically part of Europe but are at the periphery, which groups of people are included or excluded from global processes, how we are connected to each other. The project has developed and is continuing to evolve in two directions: The creation and expansion of an open online archive of artistic statements on the topics of war, dictatorship, imperialism, patriarchy and human rights violations. Inspiration of the art community to create works on the aforementioned topics, an ability not only to show solidarity but also to financially support the artists who are at war, dictatorship and ongoing repression, being censored, to give them the opportunity of professional realization and development. The archive allows curators, researchers, art critics to get quick and easy access to actual works related to the aforementioned topics and to include them into their own exhibitions, thus helping to support the artists and include them into the global context. The organization and implementation of a public events program, in cooperation with international art and culture institutions and initiatives. Due to the fact that the topic of the project is very sensitive and directly related to the events taking place ”
Here and Now”, first of all we would like to note that the curatorial team managed to organize more than 30 public events in 9 countries: discussions, exhibitions, screenings, presentations, especially taking part in important contemporary art events held in 2022: Documenta Fifteen, Manifesta 14, the 59th Venice Biennale, the European Pavilion in Rome The project team unites together professionals with high experience in various fields: curating and research in the field of contemporary art, management of cultural projects and fundraising, development and implementation of digital and online products. Our work process is built on the principle of horizontality and collective decision-
making.
antiwarcoalition.art curatorial team:
Antonina Stebur,
Aleksander Komarov,
Anna Chistoserdova,
Valentina Kiselyova,
Tatiana Kochubinska,
Maxim Tyminko.
WEBSITE: https://antiwarcoalition.art
Issam Kourbaj
Born in Syria and trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Damascus, the Repin Institute of Fine Arts and Architecture in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), and Wimbledon School of Art. He has lived in Cambridge, UK, since 1990. He has been artist-in-residence and bye-fellow, and is currently a lector-in-art, at Christ’s College, Cambridge University. Since 2011 Kourbaj’s artwork has reflected the suffering of his fellow Syrians and the destruction of his cultural heritage.
His work has been widely exhibited, collected, and exhibited in several museums around the world: Fitzwilliam Museum, Classical Archaeology Museum and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Wereldmuseum (formerly Tropenmuseum), Amsterdam; Penn Museum, Philadelphia; Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Venice Biennale, among others.
His Dark Water, Burning World is in the permanent collection of the Pergamon Museum and the British Museum. For the BBC’s ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects,’ Neil MacGregor (the former director of the British Museum) chose it as the 101st object.
Urgent Archive and You are not you and home is not home are concurrent solo exhibitions at Kettle’s Yard and the Heong Gallery, Cambridge (2 March – 26 May 2024).
picture by Thierry Bal
WEBSITE: http://issamkourbaj.co.uk/
Miki Kratsman
Israel’s highly distinguished photographer, , for over 40 years, been infinitely committed to seriously documenting the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and mainly, its bitter consequences on the daily life of the Palestinian population.
In 2006-2014 he presided as head of the photography department of Bezalel academy of arts, Jerusalem, where he continues to teach. Kratsman is the fifth recipient of Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University 2011. Winner of EMET Prize for Science, Art and Culture, 2011. In 2016 was nominated as one of the most concerned photographers in history by the ICP / Capa Foundation
Kratsman exhibits consistently, in Israel and throughout the world.
His works are in the collections of Centre Pompidu, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel Museum of Art, MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, and Private collections.
Bedouins (hebrew, Arabic and English), Asia Publishers, 2023. Archive Worker (Hebrew), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2020, The Resolution of the Suspect. Kratsman, Miki. Text by Ariella Azoulay, Radius Books publish house, 2016.All About Usl: Edited by Nicolaus Schafhausen for Ursula Blicke. Stiftung. Berlin: Stenrber Press, 2011. Co-founder and Chairman of Board at Braking the Silence since 2004
WEBSITE: https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
Jasmina Metwaly
a Cairo-Berlin-based artist and filmmaker of Polish-Egyptian heritage, co-founded the Mosireen collective and the media archive 858.ma. Working primarily in video, film, and recently revisiting drawing, Metwaly is drawn to exploring personal and historical narratives through various materials, including texts, archival documents, and images. Her art, rooted in performance and theatre, emphasizes process-based practices that generate social impact by creating tension between participants and audiences.
Metwaly adopts an observer/storyteller stance to explore the transgressive nature of images, the evolving role of the camera operator, and the effects on collective memory. Her process-oriented work scrutinizes creation methodologies, collection, and archiving processes, challenging traditional boundaries between documentation and fiction.
Metwaly’s contributions have been recognized internationally, with her works showcased at venues like the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her collaborations with filmmaker Philip Rizk, particularly their feature-length film “Out on the Street,” gained notable attention, including a presentation at the 56th Venice Biennale and MoMA. Her recent work “Anbar” was supported by Mophradat and presented at the Hammer Museum LA and KW Berlin.
picture by Christina Rizk
WEBSITE: https://858.ma/
Katarina Pirak Sikku
born 1965, lives in Jokkmokk. She moved back to Jokkmokk after her degree in liberal arts at the School of Art at Umeå University. In Jokkmokk, she has her studio where, over the years, she has investigated landscapes, borders, traces.
What she is most noted for is her involvement in the racial biological material. With an inside perspective, she has investigated how it feels to be one of those investigated.
Her project began with the question “Can sadness be inherited?” It’s a question she’s still investigating.
She uses her own body to feel and experience. In 2023, she was granted artistic research funding by the Swedish Research Council and is affiliated with the Center for Gender Studies at Uppsala University.
picture by Nils-Henrik Sikku.