June 24–September 25, 2022
The 18 recipients of the Villa Massimo Rome Prize in 2020/21 and 2021/22 will exhibit the works they produced in Rome at the Japanisches Palais from June 24 to September 25, 2022. The exhibit’s artwork is titled Eppur si muove—And still it moves! Villa Massimo’s trip to the Japanisches Palais is mostly the result of the recent isolation and seclusion, and it addresses the vulnerability of people, societies, and the environment in which we exist. On June 22, the Rome Prize-winning duet Prinz Gholam will also perform in the Residenzschloss’s Kleiner Schlosshof (Small Palace Courtyard).
Due to the unusual circumstances, the artists had time and space to reflect on the current social, political, cultural, psychological, and even ecological situation. Their works demonstrate this. What impact did the pandemic have on ecological and social cohesion, how can we improve our interpersonal skills, and what positive aspects of the crisis can we draw from? The Japanisches Palais will be transformed into a forum for discussion on the time we live in and the issue of how the world will evolve by top-tier international artists from the visual arts, architecture, literature, and music.The title echoes the defiant comment by the physicist Galileo Galilei, who was forced to stand before the Pope in Rome and recant his discovery that we Earth-dwellers are not the centre of the universe.
The program will include performances in the Neptunbrunnen fountain, readings in the Japanisches Palais, concerts at the Hellerau Festival Theatre, and viewings of the paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, and installations displayed in the exhibition itself.
The most prestigious honor given to German artists or artists working in Germany while on a study visit from another country is the Rome Prize, which is given by the Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo. In order to support artists, Eduard Arnhold founded Villa Massimo in 1910, and the German Emperor later acquired it. The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media is responsible for it now as part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Nine individuals or artist collectives working in the domains of architecture, the visual arts, music composition, and literature are given the Rome Prize each year. The ten-month residency in Rome’s Villa Massimo is intended to foster creative inspiration and direction without regard to cost.
For more than 13 years, Villa Massimo has shown works over the course of a single evening at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. In 2020, Villa Massimo spent three days as a guest at the Berlin KW Institute for Contemporary Art. The Deutsche Akademie Rom has been pursuing the notion of presenting sizable exhibitions of the Rome Prize winners’ artwork in the various German Länder since 2021. In 2021, Schloss Neuhardenberg in Brandenburg started the process as a local partner. Villa Massimo’s involvement with the SKD will mark its largest-scale appearance to date in Germany. The works of the winners from 2020–21 and 202–22 will be displayed for more than three months.
Winners of the Rome Prize in 2020/21 and 2021/22: Bankleer (Kasböck & Leitner), artistic duo / Heike Baranowsky, visual artist / Unsuk Chin, composer / Kenah Cusanit, author / David Czupryn, visual artist / Gustav Düsing, architect / Something Fantastic, architect collective / Franziska Gerstenberg, author / Prinz Gholam, artistic duo / Heike Hanada, architect / Hanna Hartman, composer / Susann Maria Hempel, experimental film-maker / Benedikt Hipp, visual artist / Andrej Koroliov, composer / Hans Lüdemann, composer / Carsten Saeger, visual artist / Alexander Schimmelbusch, author / Ron Winkler, authorVilla Massimo is sponsored by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.