2023

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra

Photo: Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Osaka, 2023

The Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, who has lived in Germany since 1995, has been awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2023. The jury, consisting of Akademie members Ulrike Grossarth, Raimund Kummer and Ulrike Rosenbach, honours Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, an artist who uses her visual language to address conflicts faced by contemporary society around the world. Her works combine archetypes of our collective consciousness, gender questions and sexuality, intercultural reflections and questions of spiritual practice.

The artist, who now lives in Berlin, grew up in period – following the 1973 putsch by the military junta and Augusto Pinochet’s rule – dominated by torture, kidnappings (desaparecidos) and countless human rights violations lasting over 17 years. It wasn’t until the country’s return to democracy in 1990 that the population was finally able to begin the process of confronting its history. Sandra Vásquez de la Horra’s artistic work has been shaped in equal parts by the history of Chile, the examination of her family history, the history and mythologies of the indigenous peoples and the brutal colonial rule of Europeans in Central and South America.

At the centre of Vásquez de la Horra’s drawings, sculptures and installations are human beings in the context of their social and societal environments. Her large- and small-format drawings on paper and cardboard are shaped by their accuracy, density and richness of colour. Some of her drawings are dipped in wax, a treatment that creates more depth and reinforces the stability of the paper, allowing for leporello folds and the creation of spatial objects.