In 2018, the Academic Senate of ASH Berlin decided that the wall design of the university's south façade will be changed every five years by a new contribution from the circle of Poetry Award winners. This will create the opportunity for a participatory process.
On Thursday, 25.04.2024 at 12:30-14:00, the Poetry Award winners Christoph Szalay and Maxi Obexer will present their designs and look forward to exchanging ideas with students, teaching staff, administrative staff and the Poetry Award jury.
Snacks will be available during the event.
There will also be the opportunity to take part in the presentation of the designs online and talk to the artists:
https://tagung.ash-berlin.eu/b/whu-vii-aas-1ht
The final design chosen by the Poetry Award jury will be announced at a further event on 20.06.2024.
About Christoph Szalay
Christoph Szalay was born in Graz. He is a poet, artist and curator and has been the literary representative of the Forum Stadtpark in Graz since 2017. In addition to five books, his publications have appeared in literary magazines, anthologies and on the radio. In January 2019, Christoph Szalay received the Alice Salomon Poetry Award. The jury praised him as "an author who has consistently worked in an interdisciplinary manner since the beginning of his career: Be it in poetry, performance or the creation of installations." The jury emphasized Szalay's "extraordinary multifacetedness, which masterfully uses quotations from art, literature, rock music and hip hop, everyday language and social media in equal measure, places them in a new context and irritates the reader."
About Maxi Obexer
Maxi Obexer was born in South Tyrol and lives in Berlin. She works in various genres and is particularly committed to contemporary drama, e.g. she is co-founder of the New Institute for Dramatic Writing. The highly political author deals with topics such as flight and migration; her play and radio play "Illegale Helfer" has won numerous awards. Obexer was nominated for the Bachmann Prize for her autobiographical novel "Europe's Longest Summer". In January 2023, Maxi Obexer received the Alice Salomon Poetry Award. The jury was particularly impressed by the fact that Obexer's texts "do not bow to any pleasing stylistics. Rather, they reflect Obexer's unconventional suffering in the world, her anger and her commitment."
About the redesign of the south façade
In 2017, the tender for the (re)design of the south façade attracted a great deal of media attention and was the subject of controversial debate. For an overview, we have compiled the press articles on the façade as a collection of links at www.ash-berlin.eu/fassadendebatte.
The five-year rhythm
The five-year cycle roughly corresponds to the average duration of our students' studies - if you include the Master's degree courses. This means that - in addition to the administrative staff, academic staff and lecturers at the university - most students will also be able to experience the process of deciding on a new wall design and participate in the discussions.
About the right of proposal and participation
The award winners selected by the Poetry Award jury have the opportunity to either jointly propose a wall design or to submit their own proposals. All proposals will be presented to and discussed with ASH Berlin lecturers, administrative staff, academic staff and students as well as the Poetry Prize jury at an event open to the university. This event provides the opportunity to deepen the exchange between the awardees and the university public about the connection between the work and the Alice Salomon Hochschule or about the significance of art and science and their respective independence.
The awardees themselves decide whether and to what extent they would like to use this forum (among other things) to present a finished work as a proposal for the façade or to develop their proposal further if necessary. It is conceivable, for example, that the wall design will be developed in a participatory manner and/or jointly by several award winners, that an artist will submit several proposals as alternatives or that a submitted proposal will be modified after the event. If, after five years, there are several proposals from prizewinners for the wall design, the Poetry Award jury will select the proposal that will then be realized on the south façade.
By documenting the process and the respective realizations on the south façade, a history of the Poetry Prize can be written, which can also be told as part of a history of participatory processes at ASH. This strengthens the connection between the Poetry Prize and ASH Berlin and increases the identification of university members with the Alice Salomon Poetry Award. The 5-year rhythm also enables the examination of the areas of tension: Continuity and change as well as university democracy and freedom of art to be dealt with constructively. This also includes a critical-productive and creative-learning approach to the art of its prizewinners. The self-image of the university is now characterized less by the respective work on the wall than by the exchange about it and the regular exchange of works by very different artists.
About the Alice Salomon Poetry Award
Every two years, ASH Berlin awards the Alice Salomon Poetics Prize to artists who contribute to the further development of literary, visual and acoustic arts through their special formal language and diversity, while always working and acting in an interdisciplinary manner. The award comes with prize money of 6,000 euros, a lectureship and the opportunity to redesign the south façade of the university.