Catalogue of the Ars viva Prize who has been awarded annually since 1953 to young artists living in Germany whose work stands out for its innovative potential and high artistic quality. The recipients of the 2017 prize are Jan Paul Evers, Leon Kahane, and Jumana Manna.
In the work of Jan Paul Evers (born 1982 in Cologne, where he lives and works) both preexisting and original motifs serve as the basis for black-and-white
photographs made using a combination of digital and analog processes. The images have a visual effect that transcends the boundary between painting and photography, while reflecting on the reproducibility of the medium itself.
In his videos, photographs, and installations, Leon Kahane (born 1985 in Berlin, where he lives and works) addresses economic
migration and the construction of territorial borders. The politics of his images takes in medial upheaval and global developments.
Jumana Manna, born 1987, is an American born
Palestinian artist based in Berlin. She is a graduate of CalArts and a graduate of both the National Academy of the Arts Oslo and the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She makes
films and
sculptures that explore the ways in which social,
political and interpersonal forms of power interact with the human body. Her films weave together fact and fiction, biographical and
archival materials, to investigate constructions of national and historical narratives. Her sculptures, more abstract by comparison, take interest in the calcifications of memory, as represented by the artefact real or forged.
Recent solo exhibitions include venues such as Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK (2015); Malmö Konsthall, SE (2016); Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2015); and Sculpture Center, New York, USA (2014). She has participated in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Wien, Liverpool Biennial, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Marrakech Biennale 6, The Jerusalem Show VII, Al Ma'mal Foundation, and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Bærum. Her films have been screened in festivals such as the 54th Viennale International Film Festival, 66th Berlinale Forum and IFFR Rotterdam. Manna was awarded the A.M. Qattan Foundation's Young Palestinian Artist Award in 2012, the
Ars Viva Prize for Visual Arts 2017, and was a nominee of the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst in Berlin.
