Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2024: Exhibition by Rawan Almukhtar and Ida Kammerloch
For this year's prize, the jury reviewed over 100 diploma and master's projects from the fine arts and media arts. More than 50 graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna each submitted their works. Almukhtar and Kammerloch were selected for a joint solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wien, which opens on January 22, 2025.
Rawan Almukhtar studied Art and Intervention | Concept at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was awarded the Kunsthalle Wien Preis for his two-part installation HIJRA – Queering Borders and DUKHANIA – The Protesting Archive. The exhibition will present paintings and drawings that take inspiration from his experiences as a refugee and an activist. The paintings from the series HIJRA capture the stories of refugees he met on his own journey to Vienna. Another work, DUKHANIA (‘tear gas’ in Arabic) documents the actions of protestors against the Iraqi government. Through these bodies of work, Almukhtar seeks to create a collective moment of witnessing the stories of those who have been overlooked in Western Europe, while also questioning the ways in which such people should be considered.
Voices on the Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2024
Michelle Cotton, Artistic Director, Kunsthalle Wien:
‘Over the past decade the Kunsthalle Wien Preis has punctuated Kunsthalle Wien’s programme as a focus on the youngest generation within Vienna’s dynamic artistic scene. An annual fixture in our programme, it seeks to celebrate the energy and debate that is fostered within Vienna’s foremost Academies via its students. In doing so it offers audiences an insight into an evolving discourse on contemporary art and the concerns that are shared amongst the artists that will shape the course of contemporary art. This edition presenting the work of Rawan Almukhtar and Ida Kammerloch is no exception, reflecting a discourse that is activated by political and social change.’
Johan F. Hartle, Rector, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
‘The exhibition of our graduates at Kunsthalle Wien is a highlight for us every year,’ says Johan Hartle, Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. ‘This collaboration occurs at a decisive point in young artists’ development – right after they complete their degree. It provides them with a platform that can open up crucial perspectives for their future artistic work. Interaction with curators and other representatives of the art field also serves as an important impetus for their development,’ Hartle continues. ‘The selected work by Rawan Almukhtar addresses borders, border crossings, and experiences of boundaries. Under the title HIRJA – Queering Borders, we see wandering bodies that resist the established order of lines. They challenge conventional notions of boundaries between objects, bodies, and nations — also on a formal level. The images, drawing in part on light projections, recall animated images from the digital world. Here, too, they cross boundaries — between analogue and digital imagery, and thereby also between perceptual boundaries.’
