euward9 - House of Art in Munich exhibits award winners

Almost every tenth person in Germany has a severe disability, but they are hardly visible in the cultural scene. the Euward Art Award makes an important contribution and honors the three winners of the European Art Award for People with a intellectual disability on May 16.

euward9 - award ceremony in the Haus der Kunst

On Thursday, May 16, 2024 , the Augustinum Foundation, in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst in Munich, gave the Euward for the 9th time and thus the most important European art prize in painting and graphics in the context of intellectual disabilities.

Exhibition until mid -July

Samaneh Atef (Lyon, FR), Belén Sánchez (Madrid, ESP) and Desmond Tjon a Koy (Amsterdam, NL) were announced as the winners of the Euward9 last year in alphabetical order

"Samaneh Atef, Belén Sánchez, Desmond Tjonakoy. Euward9" opened in the Haus der Kunst . It ends on July 14, 2024 with a finissage and, as part of the regular annual program in the international exhibition house, presents the works of the winners and the other artists nominated for the Euward9

The winners in the short portrait

Samaneh Atef

Samaneh Atef (*1989) lives in Lyon, FR and was born in Badar Abbas, Iran in 1989. Atef's feather and ink drawings tell the history of the woman from the life donor to the prisoner, from the celebrated childborne and healer to the scapegoat and everything in between.

Characterized by uprooting and emotional deprivation, the artist Samaneh Atef experiences a deeper connection to nature early on than many people. A peach tree in front of your window becomes a confidante that still plays a central role in Atef's work.

However, the cultural conventions in Iran threaten the artist's need for expression more than she wants to admit. Fear of her own self, chronic physical pain, depression and depression as well as suffering from religious norms in Iran as a woman since then, when she finds the courage to express herself in pictures.

Nevertheless, Atef began studying computer science in 2009 to meet the expectations of her family. After completing her studies, she begins to work to build an independent existence. At the age of 25, a friendly painter encouraged her to go her own way in 2014 after recognizing the special quality of her drawings.

The artist has devoted herself to drawing intensively since 2016 and can already look back on an impressive oeuvre. Due to her unique outsider art, she has gained internationally awareness and is in contact with renowned galleries and collections across Europe. Atef presents its works at important exhibitions such as the Outsider Art Fair in Paris and New York, as well as at individual exhibitions in Marseille.

Her first major retrospective exhibition took place in the Museum of Naive and Marginal Art in Serbia. Despite censorship and restrictions on artistic freedom in Iran, their works expressly address oppression, suffering and the rights of women, while they also openly address the relationship with the female body.

Thanks to a scholarship from Artists at Risk Connection, Atef was able to leave Iran and is now determined to devote itself exclusively to her art, especially in France, where she regularly has individual exhibitions and finds recognition.

Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes , Euward9 Jury member (Hunan Normal University, curator, author) about the artist:

Samanah Atef uses the simplest materials to create a complex dramatis personae of her characteristic, iconic figures. Created from a personal trauma and the deeply perceived concern of the artist for the fate of women around the world in the hands of powerful, misogynistic forces, especially in her home country of Iran, her drawings are powerful visual statements about the conditions and struggles of women in today's world. "

Belén Sánchez

Belén Sánchez (*1972) lives in Madrid, ESP and has been a member of the Studio Debajo Del Sombrero since 2008. At the center of her drawings, collages, sculptures and films is your own body, with which you tell stories of aggression and healing.

As a performer, she slips into the role of evil and good. As a result, it creates a tension -charged action room, which is able to hike both by the abysses of violence and always positively dissolve the moral conflicts.

Belén Sánchez found the optimal conditions in the studio Debajo del Sombrero to develop her artistic language. After a year, her collage "India Na Jones" , which laid the foundation for her later work: films.

As a result, further short films such as “La Película” (2008), “Tinta Contacto” (2009) and others were created. Her goal was always a completed film, for which she developed her extensive work on drawings, sculptures, photographs and collages. Belén Sánchez is essentially a performer who in her actions illuminates the most intimate moments of her life and reveals in her films to reveal herself and others her true self.

In 2009 Belén Sánchez started her artistic work at Debajo Del Sombero and combined this with her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Complutense Madrid. After a break, she continued this activity in 2019 and created impressive survival -sized sculptures, including “La Ferianta” (2011) and “La Tilla” (2013), which are based on a special iron structure.

In addition, two self -portraits and casts of their own body were created. In 2017, Belén Sánchez worked with the choreographer and dancer Cai Tomos on a stenographic project that led to the performance “Donald Trump” in 2018, in which she embodies the American president. Despite her impressive works, Belén Sánchez only slowly gets the recognition she deserves.

Dr. Monika Jagfeld , Euward9 Jury member (director, Open Art Museum-Center for Outsider Kunst / St. Gallen) about the artist:

With her work, Bélen Sánchez opens up a virtual space in which it enables us to participate in her exploration of human feelings and interactions in a captivating way. The artist consciously works with her body. She reveals the most secret moments of her life in front of herself - and before others. The content of Sánchez 'work is a committed and courageous examination of the topics of healing and aggression. ”

Desmond Tjon a Koy

Desmond Tjon a Koy (*1993) lives in Amsterdam, NL and is Ghanaian descent. He likes to work with pencil and fineliner on topics that have to do with the culture of black peoples, religious history and music.

Lately, his work has been increasingly concerned with the history and the struggle for freedom of the People of Color.

Tjonakoy works both in the H'Art Museum and in the studio of Bijzonder Amsterdam in Amsterdam on works of art, music, religion and the history of the Black Community. Earlier work showed angels and demons in combat, while his newer works explore the history and cultures of black people.

The artist now focuses on portraits of well -known personalities of Black Culture such as Naomi Campbell and MC EIHT. His works were already exhibited in an exhibition called 'New Masters' in 2017 in the 'Museum van de Geest', including his triptych 'Black Jesus'.

Desmond Tjonakoy is a versatile artist who not only creates drawings, but also stop-motion animation films. He has participated in various international projects over the years, including Erasmus projects in Great Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands.

A milestone in his career was the collaboration with the streetwear label "Patta" for the 'Outsiderwear' , in which talented outsider artists work with fashion designers and artists. Tjonakoy lives together with his family in Amsterdam and impresses with his creative work both locally and internationally.

Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes about the artist:

As with Atef, Desmond Tjonakoy is the means of choice. is needed in his hands to design entire worlds; Worlds that have to do with everyday reality, but invite the viewers to a fantasy trip to extraordinary places. Here we encounter pronounced archetypal figures as well as recognizable characters who speak of the cultures and experiences of the blacks, in which history, imagination and longing collapse and bring about new stories about the future. ”

Also nominated artists for the EUward9

(in alphabethical order)

• Rudolf Bodmeier (*1961), Unterschleißheim, DE
• Markus Buchser (*1959), Basel, CH
• Sven Freundt (*1975), Hamburg, de
• Hannes Gaensslen (*1967), Unterschleißheim, de
• Wulf Golz (*1960), Mühlheim an der Ruhr, de
• Torsten Holzapfel (*1965), Berlin, DE
• Enes Icer (*1992), Berlin, DE
• Sandrine Mbala (*2001), Zurich, CH
• Sabine Münch (*1963), Oberschleißheim, DE
• Jeroen Pomp (*1985), Rotterdam, NL
• Paul Kai Schröder (*1993), Hamburg, DE
• Patrick Siegl (*1991), Gauting, DE
• Jakob Ujvari (*2000), Munich, DE
• Rolf Waldvogel (*1950), Leonberg, DE
• Christian Wollert (*1987), Berlin, de
• Magdalena Zehetner (*1992), Linz, AT

euward9 as a renowned forum for art in the context of intellectual disabilities

The Augustinum Stiftung München has been awarding the EUward since 2000, which was awarded the German Cultural Promotion Prize in 20222/2023. Up to 800 artists from more than 25 European nations apply each.

More than 240 applications from 25 countries were submitted to the EUward9. In addition to the exhibition of their works, the award winners receive cash prices and a catalog with a total value of around 25,000 euros.

This year's patron Joachim Gauck , Federal President AD found praised words for this special art prize:

Painting is similar to music - the arts create opportunities
to communicate the world beyond words and to step into an exchange on a level
that everyone understands. I am very happy to be a patron of the Euward9, this
important European art prize for painting and graphics in the context of intellectual disabilities.

has been promoting unknown artists with this award since 2000

Save-the-date: vernissage and exhibition data

May 16, 2024 at 6 p.m. - vernissage and award ceremony of the Euward9

6:00 p.m. Exhibition opening
7:00 p.m. Price award
greeting from Dr. Andrea Lissoni
greeting by Joachim Gauck, Federal President AD (patron of the Euward9)
Greetings from Joachim Gengenbach (board member of the Augustinum Foundation)
Laudatio by Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes to Desmond Tjonakoy
Laudatio by Dr. Monika Jagfeld zu Belén Sánchez
Laudatio from Klaus Mecherlein to Samaneh Atef

Key data for the exhibition

• Organizer : Augustinum Foundation in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst
• Curator : Klaus Mecherlein (Augustinum Foundation)
• Project manager : Sabine Brantl (Haus der Kunst)
• Patron: Federal President Ad Joachim Gauck
• Exhibition period : May 17th to July 14th, 2024
• Opening times and admission prices : www.hausderkunst.de
• Catalog: Samaneh Atef, Belén Sánchez, Desmond Tjonakoy. euward9, € 39, available in the Walther König bookstore in the Haus der Kunst and Europe -wide available in all bookstores

House of Art in Munich as a host

As a public institution, the House of Art is committed to ensuring that everyone can participate in social exchange through art. Diversity, equal rights, inclusion and accessibility are centrally anchored in his work and are also taken into account in the case of program planning or exhibition developments.

"House of German Art" in 1937 and at that time was an important place of National Socialist propaganda art policy. The Nazi politicians used a pseudo-medical language for the defamation of modern art directions and direct comparisons with photographs of people with physical or mental impairments to use them from the museums in Germany-which is particularly disturbing

In view of this historical background, the house today bears a special responsibility as an exhibition location.

With its ninth edition, the Euward 2024 takes place for the fifth time in the Haus der Kunst, with a decisive change since 2021: the Euward is no longer a guest exhibition, but a component that, like the other projects, is conveyed in the annual program of the House of Art.

This step comes to the fore the artists and their works and brings the format closer to the intention of the price, which wants to establish itself in the context of contemporary art.

The exhibition of the Euward9 also offers the opportunity to question the usual ideas and conventions and to counter the artistic work of the price providers and nominated artists freely and without established interpretation patterns.

The institutions of the art world have to reinvent themselves, their concepts are fundamentally changing. Our usual idea of ​​normality has evaporated, has freed itself from the rust of its rigid certainties. And so the cooperation with the Augustinum Foundation offers the House of Art an opportunity to bring its basic values ​​into its own in a new form. ”

Andrea Lissoni , artistic director Haus der Kunst, in the greeting of the Catalog of Euward8, 2021.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

www. kunstplaza .de/