euward9 – Haus der Kunst in Munich exhibits prize winners

Almost one in ten people in Germany has a severe disability, yet they are barely visible in the cultural scene. The euward Art Award makes an important contribution in this context and will honor the three winners of the European Art Prize for People with Intellectual Disabilities on May 16th.

euward9 – Award ceremony at the Haus der Kunst

On Thursday, May 16, 2024, the Augustinum Foundation, in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst in Munich, will award the euward for the 9th time, thus presenting the most important European art prize for painting and graphic art in the context of intellectual disability.

Exhibition until mid-July

In alphabetical order, Samaneh Atef (Lyon, FR), Belén Sánchez (Madrid, ESP) and Desmond Tjon A Koy (Amsterdam, NL) were already announced last year as the winners of the euward9.

The exhibition “Samaneh Atef, Belén Sánchez, Desmond Tjonakoy. euward9” opens at Haus der Kunst on May 16, 2024. It concludes with a finissage on July 14, 2024, and, as part of the regular annual program at the international exhibition venue, presents the works of the prize winners as well as the other artists nominated for euward9.

The award winners in brief

Samaneh Atef

Samaneh Atef (born 1989) lives in Lyon, France, and was born in 1989 in Badar Abbas, Iran. Atef's pen and ink drawings tell the story of women, from life-giver to prisoner, from celebrated birth mother and healer to scapegoat, and everything in between.

Marked by displacement and emotional deprivation, the artist Samaneh Atef experienced a deeper connection to nature early on than many people. A peach tree outside her window became a confidant that continues to play a central role in Atef's work.

However, the cultural conventions in Iran threaten the artist's need for expression more than she is willing to admit. Fear for her own identity, chronic physical pain, despondency and depression, as well as suffering under the religious norms in Iran as a woman, have shaped her work ever since she found the courage to express herself through paintings.

Nevertheless, in 2009, Atef began studying computer science to meet her family's expectations. After graduating, she started working to build an independent life. In 2014, at the age of 25, a painter friend encouraged her to pursue her own path after recognizing the exceptional quality of her drawings.

Since 2016, the artist has dedicated herself intensively to drawing and can already look back on an impressive body of work. Through her unique Outsider Art , she has gained international recognition and is in contact with renowned galleries and collections throughout Europe. Atef presents her works at important exhibitions such as the Outsider Art Fair in Paris and New York, as well as in solo exhibitions in Marseille.

Her first major retrospective exhibition took place at the Museum of Naive and Marginal Art in Serbia. Despite censorship and restrictions on artistic freedom in Iran, her works powerfully address oppression, suffering, and women's rights, while also openly discussing the relationship to the female body.

Thanks to a grant from the Artists at Risk Connection, Atef was able to leave Iran and is now determined to dedicate herself exclusively to her art, particularly in France, where she regularly has solo exhibitions and receives recognition.

Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes, euward9 jury member (Hunan Normal University, curator, author) on the artist:

Samanah Atef uses the simplest materials to create a complex dramatis personae of her characteristic, iconic figures. Born from a personal trauma and the artist's deep concern for the fate of women worldwide at the hands of powerful misogynistic forces, particularly in her home country of Iran, her drawings are powerful visual statements about the conditions and struggles of women in today's world.  

Belén Sánchez

Belén Sánchez (born 1972) lives in Madrid, Spain, and has been a member of Studio Debajo del Sombrero since 2008. Her own body is central to her drawings, collages, sculptures, and films, through which she tells stories of aggression and healing.

As a performer, she slips into the roles of both good and evil. This creates a tension-filled space for action, enabling her to both explore the depths of violence and resolve moral conflicts in a positive way.

Belén Sánchez found the ideal conditions at Atelier Debajo del Sombrero to develop her artistic language. Just one year later, she created her collage "India Na Jones," which laid the foundation for her later work: films.

This led to further short films such as “La Película” (2008), “Tinta Contacto” (2009), and others. Her goal was always a complete film, for which she developed her extensive body of work in drawings, sculptures, photographs, and collages. At her core, Belén Sánchez is a performer who illuminates the most intimate moments of her life in her actions and brings them to light in her films in order to reveal her true self to herself and others.

In 2009, Belén Sánchez began her artistic work at Debajo del Sombrero, combining it with her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. After a hiatus, she resumed this activity in 2019, creating impressive larger-than-life sculptures, including “La Ferianta” (2011) and “La Tetilla” (2013), which are based on a special iron structure.

In addition, she created two self-portraits and casts of her own body. In 2017, Belén Sánchez collaborated with choreographer and dancer Cai Tomos on a stenographic project that culminated in the 2018 performance “Donald Trump,” in which she portrayed the American president. Despite her impressive body of work, Belén Sánchez is only slowly receiving the recognition she deserves.

Dr. Monika Jagfeld, euward9 jury member (Director, open art museum – center for outsider art / St. Gallen) on the artist:

Through her work, Bélen Sánchez opens up a virtual space in which she allows us to participate in her captivating explorations of human emotions and interactions. The artist consciously works with her body, revealing the most secret moments of her life to herself—and to others. The core of Sánchez's work is a committed and courageous engagement with the themes of healing and aggression

Desmond Tjon A Koy

Desmond Tjon A Koy (*1993) lives in Amsterdam, NL and is of Ghanaian descent. He enjoys working with pencil and fineliner on topics related to Black culture, religious history, and music.

Lately, his work has increasingly focused on the history and struggle for freedom of People of Colour.

Tjonakoy works at both the H'Art Museum and the Bijzonder Amsterdams studio in Amsterdam, creating artworks that explore music, religion, and the history of the Black community. Earlier works depicted angels and demons battling, while his more recent pieces explore Black history and culture.

The artist now focuses on portraits of well-known figures in Black culture, such as Naomi Campbell and MC Eiht. His works were already exhibited in 2017 at the Museum van de Geest in an exhibition called 'New Masters', including his triptych 'Black Jesus'.

Desmond Tjonakoy is a versatile artist who not only creates drawings but also stop-motion animated films. Over the years, he has participated in various international projects, including Erasmus projects in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

A milestone in his career was his collaboration with the streetwear label "Patta" for the project 'Outsiderwear', in which talented outsider artists work together with fashion designers and artists. Tjonakoy lives with his family in Amsterdam and impresses with his creative work both locally and internationally.

Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes on the artist:

As with Atef, Desmond Tjonakoy also uses the pen as his primary tool. In his hands, this humble instrument is used to create entire worlds; worlds that, while connected to everyday reality, invite viewers on a journey of imagination to extraordinary places. Here we encounter distinctly archetypal figures as well as recognizable characters who speak of Black cultures and experiences, where history, fantasy, and longing collide and give rise to new narratives about the future.

Also nominated for euward9 are the artists*

(in alphabetical order)

• Rudolf Bodmeier (*1961), Unterschleißheim, DE
• Markus Buchser (*1959), Basel, CH
• Sven Freundt (*1975), Hamburg, DE
• Hannes Gaensslen (*1967), Unterschleißheim, DE
• Wulf Golz (*1960), Mühlheim an der Ruhr, DE
• Torsten Holzapfel (*1965), Berlin, DE
• Enes Icer (*1992), Berlin, DE
• Sandrine Mbala (*2001), Zurich, CH
• Sabine Münch (*1963), Oberschleißheim, DE
• Jeroen Pomp (*1985), Rotterdam, NL
• Paul Kai Schröder (*1993), Hamburg, DE
• Patrick Siegl (*1991), Gauting, DE
• Jakob Ujvari (*2000), Munich, DE
• Rolf Waldvogel (*1950), Leonberg, DE
• Christian Wollert (*1987), Berlin, DE
• Magdalena Zehetner (*1992), Linz, AT

euward9 as a renowned forum for art in the context of intellectual disability

Since 2000, the Augustinum Foundation Munich has awarded the euward, which received the German Cultural Promotion Prize in 2022/2023. Up to 800 artists from more than 25 European nations apply for each call for entries.

More than 240 applications from 25 countries were submitted for euward9. In addition to an exhibition of their work, the winners receive cash prizes and a catalogue with a total value of approximately €25,000.

This year's patron, Joachim Gauck, former Federal President, had words of praise for this special art prize:

Painting is similar to music in that the arts create ways to communicate with the world beyond words and to engage in dialogue on a level that everyone understands. I am delighted to be the patron of euward9, this important European art prize for painting and graphic arts in the context of intellectual disability. I thank the Augustinum Foundation, which has been supporting unknown artists with this prize since 2000 and thus making their work accessible to the public

Save the date: Opening and exhibition dates

May 16, 2024 at 6 p.m. – Opening and award ceremony of euward9

6:00 p.m. Exhibition Opening
7:00 p.m. Award Ceremony
Welcome Address by Dr. Andrea Lissoni
Welcome Address by Joachim Gauck, former Federal President (Patron of euward9)
Welcome Address by Joachim Gengenbach (Board Member of the Augustinum Foundation)
Laudation by Prof. Dr. Colin D. Rhodes for Desmond Tjonakoy
Laudation by Dr. Monika Jagfeld for Belén Sánchez
Laudation by Klaus Mecherlein for Samaneh Atef

Key data about the exhibition

• Organizer: Augustinum Foundation in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst
• Curator: Klaus Mecherlein (Augustinum Foundation)
• Project manager: Sabine Brantl (Haus der Kunst)
• Patron: Former Federal President Joachim Gauck
• Exhibition dates: May 17 to July 14, 2024
• Opening hours and admission prices: www.hausderkunst.de
• Catalogue: Samaneh Atef, Belén Sánchez, Desmond Tjonakoy. euward9, €39, available at the Walther König bookstore in the Haus der Kunst and can be ordered from all bookstores throughout Europe.

Haus der Kunst in München as host

As a public institution, the Haus der Kunst is committed to ensuring that everyone can participate in social exchange through art. Diversity, equality, inclusion, and accessibility are central to its work and are also taken into account in program planning and exhibition development.

The building itself was opened in 1937 as the "House of German Art" and was then an important site of National Socialist propaganda and art policy. Nazi politicians used pseudo-medical language to defame modern art movements and drew direct comparisons with photographs of people with physical or mental disabilities to justify their removal from German museums – which is particularly disturbing.

In light of this historical background, the house now bears a special responsibility as an exhibition venue.

With its ninth edition, euward 2024 will take place for the fifth time at the Haus der Kunst, with a decisive change since 2021: euward is no longer a guest exhibition, but a building block that, like the other projects, is presented in the annual program of the Haus der Kunst.

This step puts the artists and their works in the foreground and brings the format closer to the intention of the prize, which aims to establish itself in the context of contemporary art.

The euward9 exhibition also offers the chance to question familiar ideas and conventions and to encounter the artistic work of the prize winners and nominated artists freely and without established interpretive patterns.

The institutions of the art world must reinvent themselves, their concepts fundamentally change. Our familiar notion of normality has evaporated, freed from the rust of its rigid certainties. And so, the collaboration with the Augustinum Foundation offers the Haus der Kunst an opportunity to bring its fundamental values ​​to the fore in a new form

Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director of Haus der Kunst, in the foreword to the catalogue of euward8, 2021.