Rundgang 50Hertz

The Rundgang 50Hertz is a project to support arts academy graduates in the fine arts/visual arts. It is based on a cooperation initiated in 2017 between the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart—Berlin and the transmission system operator 50Hertz. Young artists are promoted with a documentary film and a catalogue about their working processes—both are presented at the Hamburger Bahnhof, and, additionally, made accessible digitally via the project’s website.

In the scope of this cooperation enabled by 50Hertz, we are inviting you to participate in the following limited call for participation. In 2022–23:

Displacement as an aesthetic strategy
Arts academy graduates are invited to apply who, in the sense of a transdisciplinary approach, take up the subject of displacement in their artistic work. Displacement is understood to mean the shifting of an object from one place or context to another. What happens with an object if it arrives somewhere where it traditionally does not belong? Why is it situated there? What significance does it have at its original site and what significance does it acquire by being displaced at the new place? What happens with its new environment? And what happens in the new context in the viewer who discovers it? 

The topic is intensively discussed in the context of the restitution of cultural artefacts. It can, however, be understood in manifold ways, and can also be grasped as an artistic methodology: displacement of the art object, displacement of the viewer, displacement of the exhibition context or quite fundamentally as a global fact of the present day (for instance, migratory movements). Displacement is at the same time a natural phenomenon and can also be thought of as a mental state. One aspect of these issues should be visible in the artistic work submitted. 

This competition addresses final projects by graduates, master students and graduands of Berlin’s art academies (University of the Arts and Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig and the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg who have completed their studies in the specialised area of fine arts/visual arts in the summer of 2022. All media are welcome.

The Rundgang 50Hertz project is curated by Melanie Franke. The project is promoting young talent, stands for diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion; we encourage people with disabilities to apply.

Deadline: October 15, 2022.