The Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S has announced that Andri Snær Magnason will be the winner of the Kairos Award of 2010. The Award Ceremony will take place at Deutches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, february 28th 2010.
KAIROS — A European Cultural Prize awarded by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S.
Since its establishment the foundation has awarded various cultural prizes of different endowment throughout Europe. Reflecting the changing social, political and cultural conditions of contemporary Europe, most of the previous awards were discontinued in favour of one newly conceived and at the same time higher endowed prize. The KAIROS Prize which was first awarded in 2007 represents an innovation within a rather distinguished post-war history of price giving through the foundation. Previous winners of prices initiated by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. have been, among others, Harold Pinter, Pina Bausch, Samuel Mendes, Imre Kertesz, David Hockney, Cees Nooteboom or, more recently, Olafur Eliasson.
The KAIROS Prize is honouring European artists and academics from the fields of the fine and the performing arts, music, architecture, film, photography, literature and journalism. The prize is awarded for individual artistic achievements as well as for producers, festival directors, publishers, gallery owners and other creative personalities who give important impulses to art and culture in Europe. The KAIROS Prize is endowed with the amount of 75.000 € and aims to honour outstanding individuals working with entrepreneurial spirit, persistence and creativity in the field of European culture and intercultural understanding. The prize is named after the Greek god KAIROS — the god for „the right moment“ — as it seeks to encourage and promote younger artists, curators, managers in the field of culture or science at „the right time in their career“. It is neither an award for life time achievement nor a singular project, but rather seeks to identify early achievement, special work in progress as well as potential for future sucess. The KAIROS Prize is awarded annually in Hamburg by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. An independent committtee decides on the awarding.
Committee of the KAIROS Prize
Christoph Stölzl (chairman) historian, politician and senator retd
Christine Eichel, author and journalist
Nike Wagner, art director of the Weimar Arts Festival
Armin Conrad, editor-in-chief at 3sat kulturzeit
Rainer M. Schape, director of the culture department of Swiss television and member of
the executive board.
Winner of the KAIROS Prize 2009: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Antwerpen Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is a dancer and choreographer. He translates fundamental questions about our existence into fascinating dance performances and integrates techniques from all cultures to constantly expand upon his vocabulary of forms.
Winner of the KAIROS Prize 2008: Timea Junghaus, Budapest
Timea Junghaus is a curator and cultural activist, and the first Roma art historian in Hungary. She advocates for the recognition of Roma art and for the cultural rights of minorities. In 2007 she curated the first Roma Pavilion „Paradise Lost“ at the 52. Venice Bienale. She was awarded for her great personal commitment in finding ways to promote the contemporary Fine Arts of the European Roma beyond existing stereotypes. She also managed to raise public awareness of the Roma’s contribution to cultural diversity in Europe.
Winner of the KAIROS Prize 2007: Albrecht Dumling, Berlin
Albrecht Dumling was honoured for his contributions as a musicologist and mediator of music to the rediscovery of composers and musicians who were persecuted under the Nazi regime, and for his contributions to reintroducing their works to musical performance. As organizer of exhibitions, journalist, adviser and long-standing chairman of the society “musica reanimata” he has directed the attention of the concert scene to unjustly forgotten artists.
Contact:
Uta Gielke
Press Officer
Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S.
Phone: 0049 (0) 40 / 33 402-14
Email: gielke@toepfer-fvs.de
