The Kunstverein Ost is announcing this year’s KVOST Stipendium, which is awarded in combination with the Claus Michaletz Preis since 2022. The 10,000 Euros prize is established in memory of the publisher and founder of the Secco Pontanova Foundation, Claus Michaletz. The full amount of the prize money goes to the scholarship holders. Together with the KVOST scholarship, which includes an artist in residency in Berlin with a subsequent solo exhibition at KVOST, the awarding of the Claus Michaletz Preis enables further, sustainable support for the artists.

The application documents are now available: KVOST Stipendium
Application deadline is April 17, 2025.

The scholarship is aimed at artists whose biographical roots lie in Central and Eastern Europe / the former Eastern Bloc.

With the grant, KVOST invites artists to trace the complex network of meanings of Leipziger Strasse / Dönhoffplatz and its surroundings or delve into other geographical and biographical aspects of the East. The works created in this process will be presented in a solo exhibition starting with Berlin Art Week in September 2025.

Previous scholarship holders were the Romanian artist Vlad Nancă in 2019, the Portuguese artist Cristina Ferreira-Szwarc in 2020, the Ukrainian artist Olena Pronkina in 2022, in 2023 the Romanian artist Larisa Sitar and in 2024 the Polish artist Magdalena Ciemierkiewicz.

“Schmerzen in der Fernbeziehung”
Review by Tom Mustroph

www.tagesspiegel.de

With Luise Rellensmann, Professor of Building in Existing Contexts, Monument Preservation and Building Survey at HU München and Martin Maleschka, architect and author.

Deleted. Marginalized. Forgotten. Unloved buildings of the Eastern modernist era are hotly disputed. They are said to be disfunctional, unaesthetic and run-down. However, it is not only gray matter that disappears, but also building culture, perspectives and societal ideas. The expert panel will therefore sharpen the focus on East German architecture and art. The associated heritage will be given a new appreciation, which is urgently needed to preserve it.

In cooperation with KISR – Kunst im Stadtraum.

with a performance and music by DJ Dosaaf (Gleb Kovalski)

07.12.2024 . 6 – 9 pm

An event organised by artists and couple in private life Lesia Pcholka and Uladzimir Hramovich. Political refugees from Belarus, they were forced to leave their homeland after taking part in protests calling for democratic elections.

In every country they have lived in since 2020, they have tried to legalise their relationship, but have failed for various reasons. The bridal bouquets in their installation By Law exhibited at KVOST, with flowers in the shape of the borders of each country, represent the places where the couple have found temporary homes, whose stability has often been shaken.

During the event, Pcholka and Hramovich will take us on a journey to the places where they built temporary family structures against the precariousness of migratory life, accompanied by music, drinks and a wedding performance. In their work, the legalisation of the relationship, the dream of marriage, becomes an unattainable symbol of stability; a middle-class serenity that is definitely lacking in life in exile.

For the event, the artists will take on the role of marriage registrars and invite everyone to take part in a symbolic “marriage registration”.

Dress code
Get in the wedding spirit! Come in bridal or formal attire – whether it’s a wedding dress, a suit or simply something fancy.