Birgit Jürgenssen Award Winner 2023: Hanna Kučera

The Birgit Jürgenssen Prize has been awarded annually since 2004 in memory of the artist Birgit Jürgenssen, who formerly taught at the Academy. The award is presented in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport and the Hubert Winter Gallery to a student of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna for work in the fields of video or (digital) media art, drawing, artistic photography, sculpture, but also painting.

Jury statement

"How to fall in a professional way?", this question is posed by Hanna Kučera in the performance Pos. 16 Performig Professionality Act V Mobilities, 2022. In addition to the fact that the artist was able to win over the jury of the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize 2023 by her ability to bring sculpture and performance into an extremely coherent context and to mediate virtuously between the media of drawing, sculpture, performative techniques and scenography, She was also convincing because she puts herself on display as an artist and - this was appreciated as a parallel to the oeuvre of Birgit Jürgenssen, in addition to the multimedia and interdisciplinarity - brings her own position into connection with social debate.

Precisely Hanna Kučera composes and stages spatial settings in which human and non-human materials exist as equal players. The alienation of everyday objects and action sequences sharpens the view of reality. Moreover, even after performative interventions, the works have an inherent narrative quality that sometimes testifies to playful joy and flashes ironic moments. Who doesn't think of the Princess on the Pea when they see Pos. 14 Structures Act | Peas of doubt, 2021?