"it is art®" art prize: Farzane Vaziritabar

© Source: Sprengel Museum Hannover

What is the Hannes Malte Mahler Art Prize – it is art®?

The “Hannes Malte Mahler Art Prize – it is art®,” open to international applicants, is awarded every four years by the nonprofit association feinkunst e.V. in cooperation with the Sprengel Museum Hannover. Launched in 2020, the prize honors the Hanover-based artist Hannes Malte Mahler (1968–2016), a master student of Marina Abramović who tragically passed away in 2016. With a cash prize of 15,000 euros and a project and production budget of up to 105,000 euros, it is one of the most highly endowed art prizes in Germany. The grant is open to both emerging and established artists and includes an invitation to realize a project in the urban space of Hannover as well as in the spaces of feinkunst e.V. and the Sprengel Museum.
 

© Photo: Helge Rückeberg

Who will be the 2026 winner?

The winner of the “Hannes Malte Mahler Art Prize 2024 – it is art®” is artist Farzane Vaziritabar, born in 1987 in Yazd, Iran. With her concept, Vaziritabar takes up Hannover’s well-known “Roten Faden” (Red Thread)—the tour of the city’s landmarks—and reinterprets it through a variety of artistic, media-based, and performative interventions. Her planned activities at a total of 38 locations range from sound works and performances to installations, sculptures, and video works, as well as interactive elements. In doing so, she opens up a broad field of contemporary artistic forms of expression while simultaneously engaging with socially relevant themes, particularly questions of fluid identities. The playful, humorous approach that characterizes her work reveals a productive affinity with Hannes Malte Mahler’s artistic self-understanding—without imitating him.