Bernhard Heiliger Grant

The Bernhard Heiliger Foundation supports selected young sculptors by providing them with a project-related grant to cover the costs, up to a limited amount, of working space, equipment and materials. The Bernhard Heiliger grant is awarded to a sculptor or sculptress through a nomination process, and is not the result of a competition or application procedure. To date the following emerging artists have been supported by the Bernhard Heiliger Grant Program:

Harry Hauck 1997
Born in 1964 in Birkersdorf, Düren

Class of Professor Michael Schoenholtz, UdK Berlin

Anne Hille 1998
Born in 1968 in Essen
Class of Professor David Evison, UdK Berlin

Milena Burzywoda 1999
Born in 1969 in Myen, Eifel
Class of Professor Lothar Baumgarten, UdK Berlin

Kai Mertens 2000
Born in 1970 in Rendsburg
Class of Professor David Evison, UdK Berlin

Birgit Dieker 2001
Born in 1969 in Gescher/Westfalen
Class of Professor Michael Schoenholtz, UdK Berlin

Anna-Kavata Mbiti 2002
Born 1976 in Nyon/Schweiz
Class of Professor Tony Cragg, UdK Berlin

Sun-Hee Kim 2003
Born 1974 in Seoul
Class of Professor Michael Schoenholtz, UdK Berlin

Marcus Wittmers 2004
Born 1973 in Müggelheim
Class of Professor Inge Mahn, Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin

Katharina Moessinger 2005

Born 1974 in Berlin

Class of Professor Michael Schoenholtz, UdK Berlin

Peter Kröning 2006

Born 1971 in Erlangen
Class of Professor David Evison, UdK Berlin

Further information on request
info@bernhard-heiliger-stiftung.de

Every four years, the foundation awards the Bernhard Heiliger Award of Sculpture for outstanding achievements in the field of sculpture. This prize includes an award of € 15,000. 
The aim of this prize, awarded by an independent jury, is the appreciation of a living artist with intrinsic quality independent of the art market’s fleeting trends, who has contributed considerably to sculpture or to the perception of sculpture as an art. The Bernhard Heiliger Award of Sculpture is neither a developing-artist or supportive award, nor a decoration of already fully established artists. It aims to uncover a sculptural oeuvre and initiate contemporary debate of the expanse of sculpture, often in contrasting tension to Heiliger’s art.

The first recipient was the French artist Bertrand Lavier in 1999. His work is an innovative development of Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades to formally composed sculptures. Apart from many solo exhibitions in France, Italy and Switzerland, Bertrand Lavier has also participated twice in the Venice Biennale (1976, 1997) and twice in the Kassel documenta (1982 and 1987), among other activities. In Germany his work has been shown in the exhibitions Territorium Artis in the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (1992), Der zerbrochene Spiegel, in the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg (1993) and Die Epoche der Moderne at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (1997). The selection of Bertrand Lavier underscores the principally open orientation of the Bernhard Heiliger Award and the desire to stimulate discussion of the contemporary notion of sculpture. The jury met on November 22, 1998, in the rooms of the foundation. Among the jury members were Sir Alan Bowness, former director of the Tate Gallery, Prof. Dr. Werner Spies, Director of the Museé National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenburger, Director of the Kunstakademie Münster and twice head of the documenta in Kassel. From the foundation's board of directors, Prof. Lothar Romain, President of the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin and the art historian Prof. Dr. Robert Kudielka were present as non-voting consultants. On the occasion of granting the ward, the foundation produced a German/French festschrift, giving an extensive introduction to the work of Bertrand Lavier. With essays by Manfred Schneckenburger and Daniel Soutif, and an introduction by Peter Radunski in his function as the former Culture Senator for Berlin, this bound publication comprises 72 pages and contains 34 mostly full-page colored illustrations. It may be obtained upon payment of a small copyright fee from the Bernhard Heiliger Foundation (Order with payment coupon ("Zahlschein") by e-mail plus 3 Euro postage and handling).

The second laureate of the Bernhard Heiliger Award of Sculpture is Fritz Schwegler. Born in 1935 in the Swabian Town of Breech, the artist, who originally gained recognition as an iconoclastic, uncanny creator of image collages and spoken performances, has created an exceptional and comprehensive work of small sculptures over the past ten years. With a recently completed work series of 1000 bronze sculptures, “at the end of the 20^th century” he “created a register of plastic art without comparison” pronounced the jurors Werner Spies (Paris), Manfred Schneckenburger (Münster) and Dominic van den Boogerd (Amsterdam). Until recently, Fritz Schwegler was an exceptionally successful and highly regarded teacher at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie. As his students, many younger artists like Martin Honert, Thomas Huber, Thomas Demand or Katharina Fritsch owe the successful beginnings of their own careers partly to him. The jury praises his enterprising use of playful connections of sculpture with irony, color and collage.