Clemens Botho Goldbach
GWK-Förderpreise Kunst 2013
29. September – 10. November 2013

Clemens Botho-Goldbach im Kloster Wedinghausen, Arnsberg, 2013: Codex

Press release of the GWK-Gesellschaft für Westfälische Kulturarbeit:

The GWK-Gesellschaft für Westfälische Kulturarbeit presents the winners of this year's sponsorship awards for young artists with a diverse program of music and literature as well as an exhibition opening at the Kunstverein Arnsberg. In cooperation with the city of Arnsberg, the award ceremony will take place on Sunday, September 29 at 11:30 a.m. in the KulturSchmiede Arnsberg. The public is cordially invited to attend. Three visual artists, two classical musicians and one writer will be awarded the coveted prizes. The six prizes awarded by the association, which is based in Münster, have a total value of 35,000 euros. The GWK also includes the prize winners in a multi-year sponsorship program. 

"Once again this year, it is a great pleasure for us to be able to award the GWK Sponsorship Prize to exceptionally talented young people from our region. I am confident that the young artists will have very good professional careers in the coming years," commented GWK Managing Director Dr. Susanne Schulte on the jury's decisions. Three expert juries selected the prize winners. The two music prizes go to recorder player Maximilian Volbers from Havixbeck and accordionist Nikola Komatina from Detmold. Poet Lars Reyer from Vreden receives the literature prize, and the two art prizes go to Clemens Botho Goldbach from Cologne and Bettina Marx from Bonn, who both studied in Münster. The artist Katja Kottmann from Haltern am See is presented with a prize in recognition of the sponsorship award. 

GWK sponsorship awards - Who could apply

Every year, the GWK, in cooperation with three expert juries, awards GWK sponsorship prizes to young artists, classical musicians and writers who have already achieved outstanding results and who are expected to achieve exceptional results in the future. They must have been born or raised in Westphalia-Lippe, have studied there or live there. The prizes are presented at various renowned Westphalian art institutions, which organize an exhibition of the art prize winners in conjunction with the award ceremony. For example, the 2011 award ceremony took place at the Museum Marta in Herford, the 2012 award ceremony was held at the Flottmann-Hallen in Herne, and in 2014 the Bielefelder Kunstverein will be a cooperation partner of the GWK. 

GWK art prizes for Clemens Botho Goldbach and Bettina Marx, recognition prize for Katja Kottmann 

The two GWK art prizes, awarded to Clemens Botho Goldbach and Bettina Marx, are endowed with 4,000 euros each. For each prize, the GWK will also publish an individual catalog worth 6,000 euros and, in cooperation with the Kunstverein Arnsberg, will organize an exhibition that will take place in the Kunstverein's building and in Kloster Wedinghausen. Bettina Marx and Clemens Botho will also be included in a GWK sponsorship program. This makes the GWK Art Prizes one of the best endowed awards for young artists in Germany. The recognition prize for Katja Kottmann is endowed with 1,500 euros in project funds, which will be used for an exhibition at the Kunstverein Arnsberg next year. The three prize winners were chosen from 72 applicants under the age of 35 from Westphalia-Lippe who have studied or are still studying at universities in Germany and abroad.

The 32-year-old artist Bettina Marx is being honored for her evocative and mysterious paintings and installations. They create an autonomous poetic world that fascinates, while at the same time opening up indirect, abstract and very concrete references to places through their forms and colors. The pictures transport us into a world of fantasy and from there out again, back into reality. Bettina Marx grew up in the Rhineland and was a master student of Prof. Cornelius Völker at the Kunstakademie Münster and a guest student of Prof. Peter Doig at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. 

The sculptor Clemens Botho Goldbach develops expansive architectural sculptures based on local historical material - buildings, documents, chronicles, objects, words and texts - and by drawing on knowledge of the world gained through extensive library and internet research. The 34-year-old thus opens up new perspectives on selected places and their history as well as on the present of the viewer. Clemens Botho Goldbach was born in Cologne and studied in Münster under Prof. Gunther Keusen and Daniele Buetti, whose master student he was. He lives in Düsseldorf.

Katja Kottmann, who was born in Haltern am See in 1982, is a conceptual and installation artist. In formally reduced sculptural and installation works that challenge the viewer's reflection and willingness to make associations, she examines our approach to time, our perception of the present, the universally binding determination of the date or the conditions under which the awareness of the history of a place arises. Katja Kottmann, who lives in Münster, studied at the art academy there under Prof. Aernout Mik and Prof. Daniele Buetti, whose master student she was. 

The jury for the GWK Art Prize 2013 consisted of Dr. Julia Draganovic, director of LaRete Art Projects in Modena (Italy) and New York, now director of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, curator Susanne Kleine from the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, Berlin artist and painter Paula Müller, GWK sponsorship prize winner in 2009, Kristina Scepanski, director of the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster and artist and curator of the Kunstverein Arnsberg, Vlado Velkov. 


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