BREMEN.- The jury of the Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen announces Karimah Ashadu (nominated by Bettina Steinbrügge, Mudam Luxembourg) as the 2022 winner of the € 30,000 prize. The award ceremony was held on Tuesday, 18 October at the Kunsthalle Bremen. Works by the prize winner and the other eight nominated artists will remain on view until 30 October 2022.

The artist Karimah Ashadu (born 1985 in London, lives in Hamburg, Lagos and UK) presents the video installation “Cowboy” (2022) at the Kunsthalle Bremen. In this spatial composition, our gaze is guided between two projections. One channel remains dark while the other captures our attention until the first, with its play of light and shadow, draws us in again. In this way, the diptych engages us in its dialogue.

On the left we see contemplative images of palm trees swaying in the wind and rushing ocean waves. The right screen introduces us to a man named “Cowboy” who has dedicated himself heart and soul to the care of horses. We see him tending to his horses while he talks about his life, his origins and the overwhelming feeling that flows through him as soon as he sits on a horse. In relation to the vastness of the sea which features as a motif throughout the work – in both image and sound, this feeling becomes tangible for us: Freedom and Independence. In one scene, “Cowboy” sits elevated on his horse and confronts the camera with his gaze. The camera‘s point of view means that we look up at him. This hierarchy of looking is particularly captivating as he rides, seemingly encircling and homing in on us. The other screen remains dark for this moment and the gesture is intensified; his gaze captures us completely. When he’s not looking directly into the camera, he turns his back on us.

The churning grey sea featured throughout one channel culminates in “Cowboy” riding to meet it in the other channel. In this meeting he stops just shy of the shore, never really venturing in. Though there are sentiments of freedom in its undulating vastness, underlying however, is the sea as a witness of carnage such as the transatlantic slave trade, or as a passage for undocumented migration. As the film ends and waves surge out to shore, involuntarily we reflect once more the positive associations of the sea. In the interplay with the palm trees, through whose leaves the sunlight breaks, the feeling of freedom prevails again. Since ancient times the palm frond stands as a symbol of victory, peace and independence.

Jury Statement:

“In her video installation ‘Cowboy’, which is both simple and intense, Karimah Ashadu manages to poetically and sensually relate the protagonist‘s personal story to colonial structures. The intimacy between horse and rider, the basis of the film, together with the scenery of beach and sea, suggests a sense of freedom and at the same time refers to aspects of Black History. The narrative voice of the ‘cowboy’ that accompanies the film, confirms the deep inner bond between man and animal, while the protagonist’s own multicultural biography echoes the subject of migration.

The camera work is as surprising as it is skilful, the audience is spellbound.”




Members of the 2022 jury are:

• Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• Johann Holten, Kunsthalle Mannheim
• Prof. Susanne Pfeffer, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main
• Prof. Christoph Ruckhäberle, Academy of Fine Arts (HGB), Leipzig
• Dr. Andrea Schlieker, Tate Britain, London

Nominated artists for the 2022 Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen and represented in the exhibition:

• Karimah Ashadu (born 1985 in London, lives in Hamburg, Lagos and UK) nominated by Bettina Steinbrügge, Mudam Luxembourg, previously Kunstverein in Hamburg
• Nadja Buttendorf (born 1984 in Dresden, lives in Berlin) nominated by Hilke Wagner, Albertinum, Dresden
• Pınar Ö renci (born 1973 in Van (Turkey), lives in Berlin) nominated by Natasha Ginwala, Gropius Bau, Berlin
• Leunora Salihu (born 1977 in Prishtina (Kosovo), lives in Düsseldorf) nominated by Roland Mönig, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
• Oskar Schmidt (born 1977 in Erlabrunn (GDR), lives in Berlin) nominated by Prof. Dr. Christoph Grunenberg, Kunsthalle Bremen
• Marianna Simnett (born 1986 in London, lives in Berlin and London) nominated by Thomas D. Trummer, Kunsthaus Bregenz
• Wanda Stolle (born 1985 in Berlin, lives in Berlin) nominated by Stifterkreis des Kunstpreises der Böttcherstraße
• Noemi Weber (born 1989 in Moscow, lives in Düsseldorf)
nominated by Dr. Yvette Mutumba, Contemporary And (C&), Berlin and Universität der Künste, Berlin
• Anna Witt (born 1981 in Wasserburg am Inn, lives in Vienna) nominated by Severin Dünser, Belvedere 21, Vienna


Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen

The Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen has been presented for over sixty years. It is among the leading and highest awards in the field of contemporary art in Germany, featuring 30,000 Euro in prize money. Every two years, ten distinguished curators each independently nominate an artist who originates from or lives in the German-speaking area. An independent jury then selects the winner. In 2022, the Prize is awarded for the 48th time. Since 1985 the prize that has been presented in the Kunsthalle Bremen and since it is funded by the Donors’ Circle (Stifterkreis), which is formed by committed members of the Bremen Art Association (Kunstverein in Bremen). The Donors’ Circle also has a tradition of purchasing a work by the respective prize winner for the museum. In the course of its history, the Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen has become a significant barometer of opinion in the international art scene. In the past, prize winners and nominees have included many artists that subsequently became major figures in the international art scene, such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Tomma Abts, who were later awarded the Turner Prize, and Dirk Skreber, who received the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst.

Selection of previous winners of the Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen

2020: Ulrike Müller
2018: Arne Schmitt
2016: Emeka Ogboh
2014: Nina Beier
2012: Daniel Knorr
2009: Thea Djordjadze
2007: Ulla von Brandenburg
2005: Clemens von Wedemeyer
2003: Tino Sehgal
2001: Heike Aumüller
1999: Olaf Nicolai
1997: Ólafur Elíasson
1995: Wolfgang Tillmans
1993: Martin Honert
1991: Thomas Lehnerer
1989: Stephan Balkenhol
1987: Eberhard Bosslet
1985: Martin Disler

Exhibition: Until 30 October 2022