National Gallery Young Art Prize

In 2000 the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie inaugurated the Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst. With a financial grant of 50,000 Euros, the Prize is one of the most highly valued awards for contemporary art in Germany.

This year’s nominees, Keren Cytter, Annette Kelm, Omer Fast and Danh Vo are artists whose respective works are characterised by deep reflection about our perception and our relationship to art and society. However, the subjects and the approaches chosen by each of the artists could hardly be more different. As a result, the presentation of their works in the Hamburger Bahnhof museum (running until 03 January 2010) displays a large degree of diversity. Rarely used side rooms were purposefully included in the staging of the works.

Omer Fast – this year’s prize winner, produced a film trilogy entitled “Nostalgia”, which in content and spatial dimension shows a sophisticated dramaturgy of its own. All three films are based on the real story of a West African refugee who is asking for asylum in London.

Keren Cytter produced three new films for the exhibition; all of them are based on the idea of using some extreme news found on the internet. According to this news, three equally hair-raising stories happened at the beginning of the year 2009: A woman who gets up after being shot in the head and continues to live; a man who jumps twice from the fifth floor of a high-rise building and also survives; and finally, a man who is killed openly in the street by supposedly “eleven stabs with a knife in five seconds”.

Danh Vo has planted a garden on the roof of the historical passageway using plants which former French missionaries introduced to Europe on their return from Vietnam. The artist ordered these plants from a special horticultural nursery in North Rhine-Westphalia; they may be regarded as descendants of the varieties that were originally introduced, among them predominantly different species of rhododendron.

Annette Kelm shows a selection of completely new works in a very clearly structured open presentation. The pictures themselves are full of riddles. What at a first glance may appear simple or even easily comprehensible is beginning to look weird and profound when taking a closer look. It always seems as if something inappropriate or absurd has crept into the pictures.

The exhibition runs until 03 January 2010 at Berlin’s beautiful Hamburger Bahnhof museum.  Full details of the Preis 2009 can be found by visiting their website.  The Lux 11 provides a great base from which to explore Berlin’s museum culture.