The ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Kunstvereine 2018 goes to the Temporary Gallery in Cologne

Berlin/Cologne, March 21st, 2018. An independent jury has chosen the Temporary Gallery in Cologne as this year’s winner of the 8,000 euro prize for Kunstvereine which since 2006 has been awarded by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV) in cooperation with ART COLOGNE.

The jury has decided to award this year’s Art Cologne Prize for Kunstvereine to the Temporary Gallery in Cologne. This prize pays tribute to the gallery’s program which in the context of the crowded Rhineland art scene is unmistakable and distinct. The Temporary Gallery has succeeded at providing a framework that facilitates and connects historically based as well as contemporary positions to current discourses that fall outside the art market and fashionable Trends.

The Temporary Gallery, which was founded in 2009 as a Kunstverein in which galleries not based in Cologne could exhibit, has since abandoned this original concept in favor of a series of solo and group exhibitions which also found trans-regional recognition and which were decisive for enriching the discourse about current artistic practices and more recent art history. In this way the Kunstverein Temporary Gallery has developed their own format between a major museum, a large historical Kunstverein and an Off-Space, while also being outstandingly networked internationally.

Participants of the 2018 jury were: Friederike Feldmann (Artist, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee), Christina Lehnert (Curator, Portikus, Frankfurt/Main), Catrin Lorch (Art historian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, München) and Barbara Thumm (Gallerist, Berlin).

In total 21 Kunstvereine were nominated this year for the prize: Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim; Schinkelpavillon, Berlin; Kunstverein Braunschweig; riesa efau, Dresden; TMA Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau, Dresden; Kunstverein Freiburg; Kunstverein in Hamburg; Kasseler Kunstverein; Temporary Gallery, Köln; Künstlerhaus Lauenburg; D21 Kunstraum Leipzig; Overbeck Gesellschaft - Verein von Kunstfreunden, Lübeck; Oldenburger Kunstverein; Kunstverein Reutlingen; Kunstverein zu Rostock; Neuer Saarbrücker Kunstverein; Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern, Schwerin; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Künstlerhaus Stuttgart; Shedhalle Tübingen. Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst und Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, which due to their director Gerrit Gohlke’s role on the ADKV board was excluded from the competition.

Previous prize winners include: HartWareMedienKunstVerein, Dortmund (2017); Kunstverein Arnsberg and Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof in Hamburg (2016); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2015); Bielefelder Kunstverein (2014); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2013); Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2012); Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft (2011); Kölnischer Kunstverein (2010); Heidelberger Kunstverein (2009); Salzburger Kunstverein und Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (2008); Kunstverein Wolfsburg (2007); ACC Galerie Weimar (2006).

The Prize will be awarded on Saturday, April 21th 2018 at 15:00 in the TALKS LOUNGE in Halle 11.3 of the ART COLOGNE with the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Criticism.

Reception: Daniel Hug, Director of ART COLOGNE and Meike Behm, chairwomen of ADKV.