11th Hypo Vorarlberg Art Prize for Romana Hagyo and Silke Maier-Gamauf

• anthrōpos (ancient Greek) the "human being
• phytón (ancient Greek) the "plant" or the "grown thing" to phýein (German: to bring forth, to arise) 

The two themes of the artworks have become virulent due to the social developments of the past two decades:

1. the desire for a respectful reference to all species - combined with an understanding of "body" that considers all (human and non-human) bodies to be important and worthy of protection - is becoming increasingly explosive in view of the ongoing destruction of the environment. The question is what understanding of bodies can teach people to move carefully and respectfully in their habitat.

2. the necessity is virulent for female artists to successively define concepts of gender more broadly and fluidly in order to create freedom and scope for action. Linked to this is the search for gender images beyond binary gender. Both of these topics are the subject of numerous artistic and cultural studies approaches. This work sees itself as a contribution to this important debate for society as a whole. At this point, two approaches should be mentioned that are important for her photographic productions: Donna Haraway: Remaining Restless. The Kinship of Species in the Chthulucene (2018) and Legacy Russell: Glitch Feminism (2021). The two-part work "Anthropophytes", sees itself as an artistic contribution to the work on the above-mentioned themes and is divided into the production of plant objects and photographic stagings.

Romana Hagyo and Silke Maier-Gamauf have been working together since 2014 on artistic projects that focus on the relationship between space and gender*, for example the works Hering und die Fluse, Straßenballade, Test.Test.Liegen and Abrieb und Lagenlook. In 2021, the publication Über das Wohnen im Bilde sein by Romana Hagyo in artistic collaboration with Silke Maier-Gamauf was published by Passagen Verlag.