11 March 2020
Kunstpreis Berlin – Jubiläumsstiftung 1848/1948 (Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948)
Cancellation of Awards Ceremony on 18 March at the Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz
As a result of the continuing spread of the coronavirus and the current recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute – reduction of social contacts with the aim of avoiding infections in private, public and work-related environments – the Akademie der Künste is compelled to cancel the awards ceremony of the Berlin Art Prize on 18 March 2020 on Pariser Platz. Also in light of the fact that many of the awards recipients, journalists and jury members have an international background, no official public event will be held. Jeanine Meerapfel, President of the Akademie der Künste, and Klaus Lederer, Mayor and Senator for Cultural and European Affairs, regret this necessary cancellation, while at the same time extending their sincere congratulations to all recipients of the Berlin Art Prize.
Following the rotating system of the Akademie's six sections, this year's Großer Kunstpreis Berlin 2020 (Berlin Art Prize – Grand Prize) in the discipline of music goes to the composer Younghi Pagh-Paan for her lifetime achievement. The Berlin Art Prize in visual arts goes to the American painter David Schutter, to the architecture magazine ARCH+ for architecture, to the Danish composer Christian Winther Christensen for music, to the author Norbert Zähringer for literature, to the playwright Sasha Marianna Salzmann for performing arts and to the Austrian camerawoman Christine Anna Maier for film and media art.
The Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948 was founded by the Berlin City Council in 1948 to commemorate the March Revolution of 1848. It has been awarded by the Akademie der Künste on behalf of the federal state of Berlin since 1971. Recent winners of the Berlin Art Prize - Grand Prize winners include Renée Gailhoustet (2019), Thomas Demand (2018) and Emin Alper (2017).