Call for applications: Henrike Grohs Art Award 2022

The Henrike Grohs Art Award is a roving biennial art prize conceived by Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family in memory of the former head of Goethe-Institut in Abidjan, Henrike Grohs, who was killed along with 18 others during a terrorist attack in Grand-Bassam in 2016.

How to apply

All applications must be submitted online here before 17 September. By submitting the application, the applicant accepts the conditions of the competition.

Prize

• The main prize is awarded by an international jury after a shortlist is compiled by a selection committee.
• The winning individual artist or collective will receive a cash prize of €20 000 (about $23 300) and €10 000 towards the production of a publication on the winner’s work.
• Two artists or collectives will be selected as runners-up and will be awarded a cash prize of €5 000 each.
• Each iteration of the awards’ ceremony is celebrated at a different biennale or major art event on the continent.

Timeline

• Artists may submit applications via the online application form within the period of time specified on the Henrike Grohs Art Award website.
• All applications received outside this period will not be considered.
• Following the close of applications, the selection committee will review applications and provide a shortlist of up to 20 artists, whose names will be announced on the website.
• The shortlisted artists will be notified by email.
• An international jury will select the winner and two runners-up.
• The prize winners will be announced at an international biennale or event on the continent.
• The organisers reserve the right to alter timelines, in accordance with the availability of its members.
• The announcements of the shortlisted artists and the winner of the prize will be made available on the official website.

“The prize offers emerging talent international visibility and creates a platform to showcase the diversity of contemporary pan-African visual arts practice,” Goethe-Institut Johannesburg regional head of programmes Dr Asma Diakité said. “It thereby challenges the long-standing, misguided conceptions about the multifaceted continent. Like the late Okwui Enwezor once said, ‘If we have an open mind, Western art doesn’t have to be seen in opposition to art from elsewhere, but can be seen in a dialogue that helps protect the differences and decisions that present the material circumstances and conditions of production in which artists fashion what their view of enlightenment can be’.”

Grohs was instrumental in setting up the Music In Africa project in 2011. She served as a board member of the Music In Africa Foundation for two years and stepped down to focus on her responsibilities as the director of Goethe-Institut in Abidjan. She was 51 years old at the time of her death.

View the original call here.