Eight emerging artists and designers from weißensee kunsthochschule berlin were awarded the Mart Stam Prize on 27 November 2025. Named after the Dutch architect, designer and former rector of the university, the prize honors outstanding graduation projects and includes a joint exhibition as well as a dedicated catalogue. The awards ceremony took place in the university’s historic assembly hall.
Image avobe: Can I Need You – Photo Langjie Jian
The Mart Stam Prize 2025 recognizes eight artistic and design positions distinguished by innovative approaches, distinctive formal languages and strong engagement with social and cultural issues. The jury highlighted not only the high overall quality but also the remarkable diversity of perspectives represented across the works.
Friedrich Fromm (MA Fashion Design) presents “Fernah”, a menswear collection translating traditional Black Forest costumes and Alemannic Carnival attire into contemporary silhouettes featuring bold colors, patterns, embroidery and recycled materials.
Langjie Jian (Diploma Sculpture) offers his drawing skills to strangers via an open call. Based on submitted photographs and personal conversations, he creates individual “wish images” that—together with chair, drawing and audio recordings—form portraits of absent individuals.
Nazlı Karaturna (Diploma Painting) addresses themes of heritage and memory in “Yuva”, a body of work dedicated to her family who died during the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye. Large-scale textile collages reinterpret private family photographs.
Marlene Kargl (Diploma Sculpture) creates an immersive environment with her installation “You May Not Go Any Further”, merging objects and materials into a new spatial language.
Tibor Koehne (Diploma Painting) tells the story “Piccin Gemellone – Lil Twin” in the style of a fairy tale, exploring the conflict with his twin brother and reflecting on ownership, capital and labor.
Leonard Neuberger (BA Product Design) presents the “Sofia Hand Prosthesis”, an innovative prototype redefining functionality, aesthetics and user interaction in assistive device design.
Bastian Schwenteck (BA Visual Communication) showcases “Wind Harp”, a work displaying the effects of wind across three screens: an Aeolian harp translating weather data into sound, wind forces on a bridge and Henry David Thoreau’s observations of telegraph wires.
Xiao Zhang (MA Spatial Strategies) addresses the relationship between taste, belonging and cultural identity in the performative work “The Politics of Appetite”.
Jury member Prof. Stefan Koppelkamm, Chairman of the Mart Stam Society, emphasised the diversity of this year’s entries. Many works dealt intensively with family or cultural origins and the transformation of identity between different contexts.
WHEN?
Award Ceremony: 27. November 2025
WHERE?
weißensee kunsthochschule berlin
Bühringstraße 20
13086 Berlin
