School of Art and Design Kassel: Tour prizes 2025 awarded

An expert jury consisting of Ayşe Güleç (educator, author, curator, art mediator, research activist), Dr. Aykan Safoğlu (artist) and Prof. Dr. Alena Williams (Department of Theory and Mediation of Contemporary Art, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) awarded student works with the Birgitt Bolsmann Prize, the SV SparkassenVersicherung Holding AG Prize and the Prize of the Employees of the School of Art and Design Kassel.

Prize winners 2025 - jury statements:

Prize of the SV SparkassenVersicherung (2,500 euros)

Still There, Berfin Topal (1,250 euros)
Since 1995, Kurdish families have gathered every Saturday in Galatasaray Square in Istanbul to demand accountability for the loss of their loved ones who were abducted and murdered by the Turkish state. These mourning protesters defy easy representation and defy fragmentation by the police barricades erected in the square in 2018. Berfin Topal's drawings also defy this fragmentation, spanning time and space on the ephemeral surface of the paper. The work beautifully interweaves different times and spaces and stands as an act of reconciliation against the injustices of history. At the center of Still There, the mother Emine Ocak, who passed away last week, stands out with her harrowing facial expression. As a witness to the violence of the time, her demand for justice for the murder of her beloved son Hasan Ocak and many other Kurdish children is a powerful eulogy to the resilience of Kurdish women and their feminist movement dedicated to peace. Topal's practice is attuned to the agency of our time.

ein kinderspiel, robyn / sarah bach (1,250 euros) 
ein kinderspiel is a work that deals with transparency. A blindfolded figure appears in a series of images. Another perspective is superimposed over one of these prints: Children playing on a military tank during the "Hessentag" 2024 in the town of Fritzlar. The multi-layered screen-printing technique disturbs the representational space and complicates the visual meaning of the work. Color and collaboration become "child's play" for the artist robyn / sarah bach. This technique addresses not only the possibility of contact, but also camouflage as a political practice of concealment. Through screen-printed palimpsests, she projects the present onto the past and contrasts the seriousness of childhood with the absurdity of modern warfare. The opacity of the gaze remains the central question of ein kinderspiel - its orientation is camouflaged. This sense of camouflage - its texture - points to possible exit strategies, away from hegemonic regimes of looking and seeing.

Prize of the staff of the School of Art and Design Kassel (1,100 euros)

Ecstasy in Five Stages, Mel Reckert (550 euros)
The jury found that the formal experiments in Ecstasy in Five Stages represent a fascinating use of woven materials. The painting, which has been expanded into a series of interconnected frames, transforms the two-dimensional space of the picture plane into a multi-dimensional exploration of time. Most impressive is the way the work explicitly invites viewers to align their bodies with the work. The performance becomes a perceptual approach to Reckert's painting practice, turning opacity into an acute political and phenomenological experience.

Magic Gulyás, Áron Farkas (550 euros) 
Fiction animates the story of an unusual friendship. In convincing acts of trust, two characters engage in playful leisure activities and slowly develop a deeper connection with each other. Through the unconventional use of color and cinematic techniques, the artist convinces the viewer that their movements are not an illusion. We perceive them as if we were immersed in the beauty of strange details. Society may view their behavior as rebellious lust, but the artist proves to us that "rage" has so many beautiful shades and faces.

Birgitt Bolsmann Prize (1,100 euros)

FMS, Linda Deuse (550 euros) 
Linda Deuse dedicates her work to the subject of fibromyalgia syndrome - or F.M.S., as the installation is titled. It consists of a wall text and contains a detailed list of the symptoms of the disease. Deuse examines the effects of FMS from both a medical and a personal perspective. This approach also includes a painting of a young woman sitting in a green armchair looking at us. In addition to this spatial installation, there is a publication with photos accompanied by short texts describing everyday life with FMS. This interweaving and merging of personal, medical and social perspectives through the expressive forms of painting, diary and science speaks to the fragility and resilience of everyday life.

Expulsión 1, Expulsión 2, Expulsión 3, Claudia Duensing (550 euros) 
Amidst a collection of household objects - a bedside table with potted plants, nail clippers, empty medicine boxes, personal accessories, an animal carved from wood and an array of knick-knacks and old toys - are three unexpected drawings. Three ink drawings in simple, inconspicuous frames show intimate birth scenes. What is unusual is that the installation is presented here without the typical pieces of furniture - a bed, a chest of drawers or drawers. Nevertheless, they hint at the mother's presence and reflect the awakening of life and the transformative physiological state of the body and motherhood associated with the birth of a (second) human being.

Special mention

Träumen Am Stern, Janis Schmidt
The camera pans across a busy intersection - one of the social centers of the city of Kassel - while interviews with locals can be heard off-screen. The synergy between image and sound captures a liminal moment at dusk and opens up a rhetorical space for thought and reflection - what Schmidt describes as a "place of in-between". From a perspective of distance and curiosity, the ambivalence of the film invites a discussion about the ethics of social engagement and observation, about being "in-between". The jury was particularly impressed by the film's exploration of the theme of dreaming and the way its breathtaking cinematography juxtaposes the desires of Kassel's inhabitants with the social and material reality of the city.

Background: Rundgang der School of Art and Design 2025 - eXtase
The Rundgang 2025 (July 24-27) was conceived and realized by an interdisciplinary team of students under the direction of Prof. Bjørn Melhus (Class for Virtual Realities). Many thanks to the jury for their work and to the prize sponsors! Special thanks also go to the student organizing team of the tour: Chantal Barkhüser and Konrad Winter as well as to the designers of the visual identity of the annual exhibition: Olivia Völlnagel, Newroz Agnes Ayalp, Marie-Luise Fichtner.