1st prize ( € 3,000) : Anne Heilmann, Before the Wind
The installation, which consists of two parts, is the artistic transfer of two sections of a weather map: a gust in the trade wind zone and a low-pressure area of the North Atlantic were depicted as a spatial drawing by linking ropes - special ropes that are traditionally used in sailing. In this way, a network was created, some with varying degrees of density, others completely open. Another component is the artist's own texts, which can be read on signs or heard via a QR code.
Inspired by a seven-month voyage on a sailing ship, the artist manages to combine the poetic language of her texts with the knotting work in a subtle and coherent way. Starting from her subjective experience, a work of art is created that touches and triggers associations when viewed and listened to. Weather and wind forecasts are of great importance not only for sailors, but for all people. Anne Heilmann explores her personal feelings of winds of varying intensity and opens up a space of reflection on the subject of wind for the recipient.
Jury text by the jurors.
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2nd prize (€2,000): Piotr Weselowski, Karola Konieczny and Aleksander Bryk "Catch me if you can"
The approximately 8 m high installation on the Helfenberg can be seen from afar. A scaffold encloses and fixes the hollow form woven from bamboo strips in the shape of a tornado, the tube-like end of which is connected to the ground. In one turn, the form widens upwards and is open to the sky.
The artist and the two artists have succeeded in expressing the destructive power of this wind phenomenon and at the same time giving form to the - mostly futile - human effort to tame and limit it.
In view of climate change and the associated increase in extreme weather, this installation has a powerful effect and political significance. The almost exclusive use of natural materials is consistent.
Jury text from the jurors.
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3rd prize (1,000 €) Ralf Witthaus, Perpetuum
Two paths running in curves and crossing each other again and again form a "bracket" between the two exhibition sites in three stages. They were cut into the ground vegetation with cordless and power scythes - right down to the turf, so that the paths contrast with the green surroundings in a brown earth tone and are clearly visible, even from a distance. As with other "lawnmower drawings", the artist's reference to place is important and successful here too. Landscape experience and communication enter into a connection, on the one hand already in the phase of realisation by voluntary helpers in black and white clothing, and on the other hand then when visitors walk along the paths.
Both in the basic form of the symbol for infinity chosen by the artist and in the title Perpetuum (Latin for continuous, permanent, eternal) an analogy to the phenomenon of the wind can be seen.
Jury text from the jurors.
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Special Prize ( 1.000 €) Ria Gerth, Silence
The camera glides over a blossoming rape field, the horizon is wide. Colour filters create shimmering yellow and green tones. The idyll is abruptly destroyed by a detonation that spreads as a bluish wisp of smoke along the edge of the field. No sooner has it dissipated than the camera moves on until another detonation occurs. The video ends with silence over the rape field.
With this dense and precisely conceived video work, the artist refers to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which destroyed any hope of lasting peace in Europe, claimed human lives, disrupted food chains in the agricultural economy and turned nature into a war zone.
The video Silence received the special prize due to its high artistic quality.
Jury text from the jurors.
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Award ceremony and finissage
Landscape exhibition from 13-27.8.2023 in Wolfhagen - Nothfelden and Philippinenburg.
With almost 50 installations, videos, performances by artists from 13 countries. The organiser is the "bewegter wind" association, which is realising the exhibition in Windkunstland Nordhessen with the support of the district of Kassel, the town of Wolfhagen and other supporters. A team of volunteers from all over the region, together with the supporters, makes it possible for the exhibition to be accessible to everyone around the clock free of charge, thus reaching many interested people beyond the art scene.
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