Ghanaian, Akwasi Bediako Afrane, Kenyan, Jackie Karuti and South African, Sabelo Mlangeni have been shortlisted for the 2020 Henrike Grohs Art Award worth 20,000€.
A jury comprising Angolan architect and independent curator, Paula Nascimento, South African curator, Gabi Ngcobo and Egyptian writer and curator, Sarah Rifky selected the trio.
A statement from the organisers, the Goethe Institut and Grohs family explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there wouldn’t be any award ceremony for this edition.
“While each iteration of the award ceremony is celebrated at a different biennale or major art event on the continent, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic the Henrike Grohs Art Award has decided to announce the 2020 winner through a different platform. We will share this new format and the date of the winner announcement in the coming weeks,” they said.
The winner will receive a cash prize of 20.000€, with 10.000€ towards the production of a publication on his/her work while the runners up will be compensated with 5,000€ each.
The works of Afrane, who lives in Kumasi, Ghana, explore the idea of augmentation and extensions between technological gadgets and humans. He works with discarded electronic gadgets which he refers to as “amputees”. Afrane refashions and repurposes these amputees into machines and microorganisms he describes as “TRONS”. These TRONS, become potential platforms and media for reflection, engagement and interactions. His TRONS stripped bare of their familiar housing become mechanical gizmos subsumed with the consciousness of previous owners of these gadgets and himself.
The only female finalist, Karuti, is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her practice is mostly experimental and employs the use of new media through drawings, video, installations and performance art. Her work is founded on ideas around knowledge production and accessibility as well as the depths of possibility enabled by radical imagination. She is an alumnus of Àsìko, a roaming Pan African art school established by the late Bisi Silva, designed to redress the frequently outdated or non-existent artistic and curatorial curricula at tertiary institutions across Africa
Mlangeni’s black and white photographs have focused on capturing the intimate, everyday moments of communities in contemporary South Africa. He has exhibited locally and internationally.
The Henrike Grohs Art Award is a roving biennial art prize conceived by the Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family in memory of the former Head of Goethe Institut, Abidjan, Henrike Grohs. She was killed in a terrorist attack in Côte d’Ivoire in March 2013 alongside 17 other people.
