Otto Breicha Prize for Photographic Art 2024 goes to Sophie Thun
Since 1983, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg has awarded a prize for photographic art every two years. This prize has been sponsored by the Breicha family since 2007 and is known as “Otto Breicha Prize for Photographic Art – Museum der Moderne Salzburg“awarded to an Austrian photographer or photographer living in Austria. The prize is named after Otto Breicha, the founding director of the Modern Gallery and Graphic Collection – Rupertinum, the forerunner institution of today’s Museum der Moderne Salzburg.
Previous award winners include Friedl Kubelka, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Dressler, Margherita Spiluttini, Leo Kandl, Lisl Ponger, Marina Faust and most recently Anna Jermolaewa.
The winner of the 19th Otto Breicha Prize is Sophie Thun. The jury, consisting of Christa and Saskia Breicha, Anna Jermolaewa (Otto Breicha Prize winner 2021), Johan Nane Simonsen (Photo Gallery Vienna), Harald Krejci (Museum der Moderne Salzburg) and Katharina Ehrl (Museum der Moderne Salzburg) explains their unanimous decision as follows:
With her work, Sophie Thun challenges the limits of the traditional photographic process and represents a deep examination of the (technological) history of analogue photography. In addition, her images and installations are not only the result of analogue photography, but also reflect the medium as a living one Process. Since Thun first turned the camera on herself in 2014, she has been an author, model and producer of her photographs. In these she exposes herself and her body and thus refers to the female nude in art history. Through her work she also continually gives other artists visibility. Her emancipatory approach places her in the tradition of pioneering Western artists and contributes to an ongoing discussion about self-determination and the representation of the female body.
The prize is worth more than before at 7,500 euros and is awarded every two years. The artist’s works can currently be seen in her first major solo museum exhibition at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. There, Sophie Thun realized a comprehensive installation with photographic works across the entire first floor.
About Sophie Thun
Sophie Thun (1985, Frankfurt am Main, DE) grew up in Warsaw. Today she lives and works in Vienna and Berlin. She studied graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (2004-2010), then painting and later photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She is currently a substitute professor of photography at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Thun is a member of various art spaces and collectives. Since 2021 she has been a board member of the Vienna Secession Association of Visual Artists.
Her recent solo and double exhibitions include I Don’t Remember a Thing: Entering the Elusive Estate of ZDZKim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, LV, Support scholarship. Sophie Thun and Sara CwynarArt Foyer, DZ Bank Art Foundation, Frankfurt am Main, DE (both 2021), Trails and TributesKunstverein Hildesheim, DE (2022), Sophie Thun: Leaking TimesCukrarna, Ljubljana, SI (2023), The Uncontrolled Aspect of Rushing into PositionSOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna, AT, Stolberggasse to Friedrichstrasse to GrabbeplatzKunsthalle Düsseldorf, Biennale for Visual and Sonic Media – düsseldorf photo+, DE, What do you do in bed?myth Joanna Wós, Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Danzig, PL, und Sophie Thun. Between light and wallMuseum der Moderne Salzburg, AT (all 2024).
Sophie Thun. Between light and wall
Sophie Thun’s photographic work resembles a stream of images of places and spaces in which the artist worked and exhibited. She is always present in the picture as the author of her analog photographs: sometimes she looks confidently into the camera with the shutter button in her hand, sometimes she is represented by her photographic equipment. Thun always uses her body as an instrument to question established representations of (female) representation. Using methods such as cutting, splitting and multiplying, she presents identity as a process and changing. Her impressive spatial installations play with our perception of reality and image.
October 4, 2024 to February 23, 2025
Museum of Modernism Salzburg Old Town (Rupertinum)
A publication accompanying the exhibition will be published in German and English.
Artist talk & book presentation with Sophie Thun
Artist conversation with Sophie Thun, curator Marijana Schneider and graphic designer Marie Artaker as part of the exhibition of the same name “Sophie Thun. Between light and wall.”
Datum: December 6th, 2024, 4:00 p.m. – December 6th, 2024, 5:00 p.m
Art: Exhibitions
Ort: Museum of Modernism Salzburg Old Town (Rupertinum)
Wiener-Philharmoniker-Gasse 9
5020 Salzburg
Austria
URL: https://www.museumdermoderne.at/veranstaltungen/detail/artist-talk-buchpraesentation-mit-sophie-thun/