Opening: Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2024
Rawan Almukhtar studied Art and Intervention | Concept at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was awarded the Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2024 for his two-part installation HIJRA – Queering Borders and DUKHANIA – The Protesting Archive.
The Kunsthalle Wien Prize seeks to support emerging artists living and working in Vienna and to promote discourse on contemporary art via an annual collaboration with Vienna’s two renowned art universities. Jointly organised by Kunsthalle Wien, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, it is awarded annually by a jury of experts to a graduate of each of the universities. Now in its tenth year, the prize is intended to support recent graduates, building a bridge between academic study and professional practice, while bringing the work of these artists to a broader public.
The selected artists each receive a 3,000 Euro prize in addition to a production budget towards the exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz in 2025. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication with texts by Alicja Melzacka and Rijin Sahakian. A public programme of artist talks, guided tours and other events will be hosted alongside the exhibition by Kunsthalle Wien’s art education team.
For this year’s prize, the jury reviewed more than 100 diploma and masters projects from the fields of visual and media art. Over 50 graduates of each, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, submitted their work for consideration. Two artists were selected to hold a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz opening in January 2025: Rawan Almukhtar and Ida Kammerloch.
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.
Almukhtar (b. 1991, Baghdad) has exhibited his work at fjk3 – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Vienna (2023); Künstlerhaus Vienna; mumok – Museum of moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; WIENWOCHE – festival for art and activism, Vienna; Dschungel, Vienna; WUK – Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus, Vienna (all 2022); Raumschiff, Linz; Brunnenpassage, Vienna (both 2020). His work has been nominated for various awards, including the Belvedere Art Award, Vienna (2023 and 2022); the Exile Visual Arts Award by the Körber-Stiftung, Berlin (2023); and the Ishtar Award for Young Artists from the Iraqi Fine Arts Association, Baghdad (2015).
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.’
The jury of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
For the Academy: Veronika Dirnhofer (Professor for Art and Image | Drawing), Johan F. Hartle (Rector), Iman Issa (Professor for Art and Space | Spatial Strategies)
For Kunsthalle Wien: Michelle Cotton, Astrid Peterle, Nicole Suzuki External juror: Sarah Johanna Theurer (Curator, Haus der Kunst, Munich)
Chair: Johan F. Hartle
Organisation: Christine Rogi
