Playground Art Prize 2023 goes to Lotti Brockmann
This year, the PLAYGROUND ART PRIZE 2023 of the Galerie VON&VON goes to Lotti Brockmann, student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Prof. Veronika Dirnhofer, for her work Stolen Statues (Licked). Since 2016, the PLAYGROUND exhibition series has offered young artists the ideal opportunity to present their work to a broad audience and make their first contacts in the art world.
This year's jury consisted of Nicolaus Schafhausen (curator and art manager), Franciska Zólyom (director of the Foundation Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig), Leonie Radine (curator of Museion Bolzano) and Dr Florence Thurmes (director of Museum Ostwall in Dormtunder U).
About the work Stolen Statues (Licked)
The work Stolen Statues (Licked) is an ongoing collection of 1:1 casts of public statues and monuments in Vienna's urban space. The sculptures are cast in caramelised sugar and can be licked by the viewers. Both the material and the statues, which are inscribed in power relations through their cultural and linguistic history, are incorporated, liquefied and melt in relation to the time and space of the respective location.
About the artist Lotti Brockmann
Lotti Brockmann's artistic interests start with contemporary social issues and move between drawing, installation and research practice. Lotti Brockmann grew up in an environment where art is a privilege, which is why she looks at artistic and curatorial practice from a perspective that asks what cultural values are institutionally transmitted. Public space plays an important role in her work; here she sees the potential to reach different people and create dialogues through art. She uses power relations and the associated spatial order of public space as a starting point and source of inspiration for her works. One material that is often used is sugar, which fascinates Lotti Brockmann because of its cultural history, its symbolism and its material characteristics. In her artistic work, the artist is interested in exploring the connection between themes such as nationalism, sexism and colonialism, which are inscribed in sugar, and in turn to understand them better.