FELLBACH.- The winners of the Triennial Prize have been chosen by the Board of Trustees of the Triennial Kleinplastik Fellbach since 1980. Among others, Anish Kapoor (1995), Ayse Erkmen (1998), Tony Oursler (2001, Friedrike Klotz (2010)) and Rachel Kheedori (2013) were awarded.

This year, for the first time, the prize will be awarded to two female artists: the Triennial Prize, endowed with 5000€, to the Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri, a newly established Young Artist Prize, endowed with 2500€ to the Namibian artist Stéphané Edith Conradie.

The prizes will be awarded on Saturday, October 1, 2022 during the closing ceremony of the exhibition in the Alte Kelter in Fellbach by Mayor Gabriele Zull, the laudation will be given by the curator of the 15th Triennial Small Sculpture Fellbach Elke aus dem Moore.

Triennial Prize to Monira Al Qadiri

Monira Al Qadiri is the recipient of this year's Triennial Prize, selected by the Board of Trustees of the 15th Triennial small Sculpture Fellbach. Al Qadiri's works on view in Fellbach include Holy Quarter, Spectrum and OR-BIT IV.

Curator Elke aus dem Moore: "I am very pleased that the prize of the Triennial goes to Monira Al Qadiri. She impresses with her poetic-critical artistic works. Al Qadiri, who works with various media, returns again and again to sculpture in her work. The precise forms of her sculptures are often preceded by long research."

Al Qadiri is currently represented at many major exhibitions, for example at the Venice Biennale and with a permanent project as part of the Visual Arts Program at the EXPO in Dubai. Her work in Fellbach is the result of her research into the historical and cultural legacy of the pearl trade in the Gulf region and the massive social and economic changes triggered by its replacement by the Petro-economy, as well as the idea of a post-petroleum future.

In Holy Quarter, black petroleum beads formed from glass lie scattered in front of the projection of her virtuoso film. In this work, she refers to the world's largest desert region, Empty Quarter, located between Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. The desert is one of the oldest untouched habitats and is considered by humans as a place to experience being.

The multi-part sculpture Spectrum is modeled after the heads of oil drillers and combines Al Qadiri's partly personal memories of the history of pearl diving in the Gulf and the processes that have gripped the region with the oil industry.

OR-BIT, the floating, spinning pearl-colored sculpture is also modeled after a drill head, recalling the Tower of Babel and the often destructive desire for growth, wealth and power.

Monira Al Qadiri is a Kuwaiti artist who was born in Senegal in 1983 and educated in Japan. In 2010, she completed her PhD in Inter-Media Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts on the topic of the aesthetics of sadness in the Middle East. Her research focused on poetry, music, art, and ritual practices. In her performances, sculptures, and video works, Monira Al Qadiri engages with speculative futures and explores unconventional gender identities, Petro-cultures and their possible futures, and the legacy of corruption. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

Triennial Young Artists Award to Stéphané Edith Conradie

The Triennial Young Artists Award honors young artists who are at the beginning of their careers. The Young Artist Award, presented for the first time this year, goes to Stéphané Edith Conradie, an artist born in Namibia in 1990 who lives and works in Cape Town.

The award, which is endowed with 2500€, is given to the artist for the two sculptures Sleepwa I and Sleepwa II (ox cart). With great intensity, the assemblages thematize intra-African migrations. The sculptures are touching in the poetic arrangement of the individual objects, which tell of the experience of flight and the desire to settle on a piece of land to call one's own.

Author Brandaan Huighen: "Delft tableware, miniatures of Indigenous people, porcelain puppies, decorative glasses, ornamental vases, cuddly animals, wooden animal figurines, souvenirs from colonial places, homemade curios and brass jewelry, to name a few. (...) the mixing of previously separate elements that eventually come together in a consistent, albeit multi-layered, form. (...) The objects represent nodes of settlement and settlement tropes: the foundation of a private space on a claimed piece of land that others disputed."

Stéphané Edith Conradie's research and practice stems from a fascination with the way people arrange emotional objects in their living spaces - looking particularly at the homes of her family members in Namibia and South Africa. Her ornate sculptures and prints explore the history(s) of colonialism and creolization embedded in domestic material culture. Conradie's work is part of various private and public collections, including the Leridon Collection, France; the GAUTREAUX Collection, Kansas City; and the UNISA Art Gallery, South Africa.