KVOST – Kunstverein Ost – is delighted to announce Georgian artist David Apakidze (b. 1998) as the recipient of this year’s KVOST scholarship and Claus Michaletz Preis 2025, endowed with €10,000. Apakidze was selected from a pool of 203 applicants.

As part of the residency, Apakidze will present a new installation titled “The Knight at the Crossroads” at KVOST. The work centres on a queer migrant depicted as a modern-day knight. Drawing on ancient storytelling traditions in which crossroads symbolise a hero’s moment of decision, the installation transposes this motif into a contemporary, dystopian setting where outcomes remain uncertain. Unlike the traditional hero who triumphs and returns home, Apakidze’s knight is caught in a state of constant motion and displacement. The work poignantly reflects the experiences of many queer individuals, especially from Georgia, who are forced to flee their homeland in the face of growing homophobia and political violence.

David Apakidze was born in Poti and lives in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is a visual artist, curator, and co-founder of the Fungus Project, one of the first queer art platforms in the Caucasus. He studied art history at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where his engagement with medieval Orthodox art left a lasting impact on his artistic approach.

His recent exhibitions include Galeria Zachęta in Warsaw (PL) and Art House Gorgi (GEO) in 2024, as well as the National Gallery in Tbilisi and the Open Out Festival in Tromsø (NOR) in 2023. In 2025, he completed an artist residency at MeetFactory in Prague (CZE).

The 2025 jury comprised Tereza de Arruda (art historian and curator), Anna Ehrenstein (artist), Andrea Pichl (artist), Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher (curators with a focus on Eastern and Southeastern Europe), Dr. Silke Manske and Corinna Reuter (Secco Pontanova Foundation), and Stephan Koal (curator and director of the Kunstverein).

In addition to the Berlin-based residency and upcoming solo exhibition during Berlin Art Week 2025, Apakidze will receive the Claus Michaletz Preis. Awarded since 2020 in memory of the publisher and founder of the Secco Pontanova Foundation, the prize supports artists from Eastern Europe.

Aneta Grzeszykowska & Rainald Schumacher
03.05.2025 . 4 pm

Special opening hours
01. – 04.05.2025 . 14 – 18 Uhr

„Paradies“ hinterm Eisernen Vorhang
Review by Ingeborg Ruthe

www.berliner-zeitung.de

“Ich verstecke und zensiere nichts”
Interview Wenke Bruchmüller with Libuše Jarcovjáková

www.monopol-magazin.de

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.

“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.