The Cologne-based photographer Candida Höfer will be awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024. To mark the award ceremony, the Akademie der Künste is showing an exhibition of Candida Höfer’s latest works at its location on Pariser Platz. On display are large-format photographs from the work complexes Weimar (2004-2006) and Berlin (2020-2022), including images of the Komische Oper with its neo-baroque interior from 1882 and the Neue Nationalgalerie (1965-1968) as Berlin’s landmark of modernism. The prize will be awarded to the artist on September 13, 2024 by Academy President Manos Tsangaris, with Matthias Sauerbruch, member of the Architecture Section, delivering the laudatory speech. The exhibition will be opened from September 14 to September 24, 2024.
Image above: Candida Höfer, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin IV 2021, C-print, 184 x 255,6 cm (framed) © Candida Höfer / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
With this award, the Akademie der Künste honours one of the world’s most recognized German photographers. Candida Höfer’s oeuvre, which has grown over five decades, ranks among the photographic avant-garde of the present day. Her large-format works show public and semi-public spaces such as libraries, storage rooms, museums and opera houses – places of encounter, communication, memory and knowledge, relaxation and recreation. The artist herself describes her works not as architectural photographs, but as portraits of spaces. She is interested in the way in which people are directed, guided or held back by architecture.
Candida Höfer, born in Eberswalde in 1944, lives in Cologne. After a traineeship, initial studies with Arno Jansen at the Cologne Werkschulen and photographic practice in Hamburg, Ole John accepted her into the film class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1973, after which she moved to Bernd Becher. In 2002 she exhibited at documenta11 in Kassel, in 2003 she represented Germany at the 50th Venice Biennale, alongside Martin Kippenberger [posthumously]. In 2015 she received the Cologne Fine Art Prize, in 2018 the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award from the Sony World Photography Awards and in 2020 the Homage Award from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Candida Höfer realizes exhibitions and projects worldwide. Her works can be found in numerous public and private collections in Germany and abroad.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog brochure with a text by Matthias Sauerbruch.
The prize, exhibition and accompanying publication have been co-financed for 30 years by the Kreissparkasse Köln, sponsor of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne.
As part of the Berlin Art Week
WHEN?
Award ceremony and opening: Friday, September 13, 2024, 6 pm
with Candida Höfer, Karin Sander, Matthias Sauerbruch, Rolf Tegtmeier, Manos Tsangaris
Exhibition dates: Saturday, September 14 – Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday, 2 – 7 p.m., Saturday – Sunday, public holidays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
WHERE?
Akademie der Künste
Pariser Platz 4
10117 Berlin
COSTS?
Award ceremony and opening: free admission
10/7 EUR, free up to 18 years, Tuesdays and every first Sunday of the month
