Preis der Nationalgalerie 2024 honours four artists for the first time: Pan Daijing, Daniel Lie, Hanne Lippard and James Richards. BMW since 2006 long-term partner of Germany’s most prestigious contemporary art award

Pan Daijing, Daniel Lie, Hanne Lippard and James Richards are awarded the Preis der Nationalgalerie, which, in 2024, is going to four artists for the first time. The new format of the prize takes up the idea of the exhibition as a collective exchange and aims to expand the collection through the purchase of four new pieces. The prize winners will produce four new works to be shown in a joint exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof from April to September 2024.

The jury for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2024 is composed of four international directors of collecting institutions: Cecilia Alemani (Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art, New York), Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director of MACBA, Barcelona), Kasia Redzisz (Artistic Director of KANAL – Centre Pompidou, Brussels) and Jochen Volz (Director General of the Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo) as well as Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath (Directors of the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin) and Gabriele Knapstein (Acting Director and Head of the Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin). The jury made their selection on the following basis:

Pan Daijing works with sound, performance, installation, choreography, and film. Her practice is situated at the intersection of visual art and music. Influenced by improvisation and narrative elements, her works often have a performative starting point, though they move far beyond this in terms of their impact. They evince the artist’s intensely psychological sense of space.

Daniel Lie’s art explores questions about ecology and non-human life forms. Lie’s multi-sensory, evocative sculptural installations create atmospheres that are found nowhere else. The ephemeral materials used in the works of the trans/non-binary artist progressively alter the space, time and dynamics of any exhibition.

Hanne Lippard uses her voice as her primary artistic medium. Her sound sculptures surround visitors, creating minimalist but immersive encounters. However, the calm impression her work gives does not belie the underlying voice that resolutely addresses political concerns.

Filmmaker James Richards combines experimental techniques with a sense of spatial arrangement. He negotiates questions of history and memory, of archives and conservation. His detailed works reveal a choreographic understanding of space, and of how people move through it.

Sam Bardaouil und Till Fellrath, Directors of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart state, “With this new format, the Hamburger Bahnhof is setting an example for collective thinking in art. The museum thus shows different artistic positions as equal and in direct dialogue with one another by awarding them a joint prize. At the same time, the Preis der Nationalgalerie will tie in closely in the Hamburger Bahnhof collection, thus preserving the respective snapshots of the art scene for the future.”

“As a long-standing partner of the Preis der Nationalgalerie, we are proud to congratulate four awardees for the first time. It is an honour for us to support this internationally renowned award and to recognize young positions in contemporary art. Together, we look forward to seeing the works in the prize-winners exhibition next year at Hamburger Bahnhof. Once again, the outstanding selection of artists shows how essential intercultural exchange is for an open, future-oriented society,” says Dr. Nicolas Peter, Member of the Board of BMW AG, Finance.

The jury chose from 70 nominees proposed by twelve experts for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2024: Sarah Alberti (journalist, editor and art historian, Leipzig); Carina Bukuts (Curator of Portikus, Frankfurt); Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu (Professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst, Braunschweig); Ines Goldbach (Director of the Kunsthalle Baselland, Muttenz); Anna Gritz (Director of the Haus am Waldsee, Berlin); Johan Holten (Director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim); Kornelia Röder (Head of Department at the Staatliches Museum Schwerin); Alya Sebti (Director of the ifa-Galerie, Berlin); Nina Tabassomi (Director of TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck); Anne Vieth (Curator of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart); Silke Wagler (Head of the Kunstfonds, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden); Moritz Wesseler (Director of the Fridericianum, Kassel). The curators of the Hamburger Bahnhof and the members of the Freunde der Nationalgalerie were also entitled to submit proposals.

The Preis der Nationalgalerie will be awarded for the twelfth time in 2024. Since 2000, the prize has been promoting recent, important positions in contemporary art that reflect the internationality and vitality of the art world in Germany and which have achieved eminence through the novelty of their approach. The Preis der Nationalgalerie is made possible by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie, and since 2006, the BMW Group Cultural Engagement has supported the Prize as an exclusive partner. Artists who currently live and work in Germany and are no older than 40 years at the time of their nomination are eligible for the Preis der Nationalgalerie. In the previous editions, one artist from a shortlist exhibition was awarded the prize and subsequently given the opportunity to present a solo exhibition. Starting now, all four nominees will be presented in a group exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, each showing a new work that is planned to be acquired for the collection of the Nationalgalerie. The prize aims to celebrate the diversity of artistic approaches and media that is characteristically found in contemporary art in particular. A contemporary form of collecting is exemplified here: in the creation of new works for the collection from out of a dialogue between artists and the institution.

The Preis der Nationalgalerie was last awarded in 2021, but the exhibition was not shown until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in 2024, the prize will again be awarded every two years and the winners will be announced the previous year. A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.

For further information and image material, please visit the press section of www.preisdernationalgalerie.de or www.smb.museum.