BAD HOMBURG .- At a prize-giving ceremony in Bad Homburg, Michael Dekker accepted the “Friends of Blickachsen Art Prize 2023”. The German artist received the award, worth 5,000 Euros, for his work “Suite”, exhibited in Blickachsen 13.

The Blickachsen Prize has been awarded every two years since the fourth Sculpture Biennale in 2003 to honour the distinctive artistic approach of one of the exhibition’s participants. Since 2015, the prize has been endowed by the “Friends of Blickachsen”.
“After careful consideration, the jury’s decision this year to award the prize to Michael Dekker was unanimous”, said Blickachsen founder and curator Christian K. Scheffel of the Blickachsen Foundation– on behalf, also, of Thomas Buhl of the “Friends of Blickachsen” and Sir Peter Murray CBE, founding director emeritus of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the UK, as permanent external jury member.

Michael Dekker’s sculpture “Suite”, specially created for Blickachsen 13, seizes its space in the Bad Homburg Kurpark with an almost musical rhythm and movement. Built out of bent wood and subsequently cast in aluminium, it unfolds with a refined elegance in a complex upwards movement.

Stratifications, displacements, curvatures – as seen in nature and in the earth’s geology – emerge here in reconstituted forms, creating a field of tension between apparently natural, grown forms on the one hand, and constructional building and architectonic thinking on the other. A term used in architecture as in music, the title of the work, “Suite”, encourages reflection about real spaces and surroundings, and opens at the same time new conceptual spaces.

At the award ceremony Sir Peter Murray paid tribute to the artist’s work: “The international dimension of Blickachsen, together with the range and content of the works exhibited, provides an exciting opportunity for artists and the public. With such an array of talent it has been a challenge to identify a winner for the Blickachsen Sculpture Prize. The work of Michael Dekker continues to impress and there was unanimous agreement to award the 2023 ‘Friends of Blickachsen Art Prize’ to this talented artist. His sculpture ‘Suite’ fuses material and spiritual elements to create a work of self-sufficiency that adds to the spirit of the landscape.”

Born in 1983 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Michael Dekker, originally a qualified agronomist, studied Fine Arts and Sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and completed a degree in geography in Duisburg before becoming a master student under Tony Cragg in 2013. Since then, his work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

The Blickachsen 13 exhibition in the Bad Homburg Kurpark and Schlosspark can be seen until 1 October.