VO-award – VARIOUS OTHERS – Contemporary Art Munich

The Award celebrates the most outstanding exhibitions at VO galleries and artist-run spaces in Munich, created through local and international collaboration. It recognises the artists, curators, and venues making these exceptional exhibitions possible — underlining Munich's role as a vibrant centre for contemporary art dialogue, and acknowledging the curatorial and artistic ambition that defines Various Others. The VO Award is selected by an international jury of curators and art professionals. The jury of this inaugural edition comprises Margherita Belcredi (Phileas, Vienna), Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya (MUSAC), Kolja Reichert (K21), and Lisa Zeitz (Weltkunst). The VO’26 Award will be given on the opening weekend and is made possible by the generous support from the patrons of Various Others.

On Saturday, May 16, the jury selected two galleries and one artist-run space as winners of this first edition of the VO Award. The selected galleries are: Sperling with "Anousha Payne: Triangle reshapes the O of my mouth", in collaboration with Ushara, concrete poetry by Kitty Doherty, and max goelitz inviting Hauser & Wirth with Eva Hesse, Lukas Heerich, Rindon Johnson. The selected artist-run space is space n.n. in collaboration with AlmResidency with the exhibition "after the map was drawn" with Ivukuvuku aka Chumani Mantanga, Joachim Perez, Thandi Pinto, Fernanda Aloi, Sophie Bergemann.

"This is the first time the V.O. Prize is being awarded. It references the core ideas that Various Others set out to motivate: Collaborations – bringing in artists, curators, galleries, and collectors from the outside, to show the city’s vibrant art scene and enrich it with different perspectives.

During these past days it has been a joy for us, the jury, to experience how engaged the different actors are, all the ideas, surprises, the fresh and creative ways of collaborating. We saw a lot of great art, and our job was not easy. We were asked to award one artist-run space, and one gallery.

Six artist-run spaces participated in the program of Various Others, and we were inspired by all of them. Munich is a tough field to work in! The energy and commitment presented by these spaces left a great impression on us, and it is a vital part of the cultural fabric of the city. It was a tight race! As a recipient of the first V.O. award in the category „Artist-run Space“ we are delighted to announce Space NN. Our heartfelt congratulations go to Sebastian Quast and the artists and the team behind the current show of the Alm Residency.

Concerning the galleries, given the broad range of amazing presentations that we have seen, we decided to award two galleries for their exemplary collaborations. Galerie Sperling for their show „Anousha Payne: Triangle reshapes the O of my mouth“ – in collaboration with Ushara and Kitty Doherty. The gallery set the ground for a wonderful collaboration of three artistic voices dealing with different mediums, bringing together poetry, sculpture, painting, architecture, performance and opera. The fleeting reality of the moth takes us on a journey that resonates with the spatial structure, the light quality of the drawings and Batik Technique, as well as the lyrics and opera.

We also award another outstanding collaboration, not only between 2 Galleries, but also 2 different generations of artists. At the gallery of Max Goelitz, the artists Lukas Heerich and Rindon Johnson have fundamentally transformed the gallery space into a holding environment for a dialogue between their works and drawings and a painting by Eva Hesse from the Sixties. We are impressed by the quality and the conversations in terms of form and material, as well as the architecture of the space conceived by Heerich and Johnson. Max Goelitz subscribed to the idea of Various Others by inviting Hauser & Wirth to Munich, to bring in the works by Eva Hesse.

Congratulations to Johannes Sperling and Max Goelitz, the artists and the teams behind the shows!

In the name of the jury, we also want to congratulate VO led by Christian Ganzenberg and his wonderful team, for this successful edition of their program and for heir important contribution to the contemporary cultural life of the city of Munich and beyond."

- The Jury

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Der Preis zeichnet die herausragendsten Ausstellungen in VO-Galerien und Artist-Run Spaces in München aus, die im Rahmen lokaler und internationaler Kooperationen entstanden sind. Er würdigt die Künstler:innen, Kurator:innen und Venues, die diese außergewöhnlichen Ausstellungen ermöglichen – und unterstreicht damit Münchens Rolle als lebendiges Zentrum des Dialogs über zeitgenössische Kunst sowie den kuratorischen und künstlerischen Anspruch, der Various Others auszeichnet. Der VO Award wird von einer internationalen Jury aus Kurator:innen und Expert:innen aus der Kunstszene ausgewählt. Die Jury dieser ersten Ausgabe besteht aus Margherita Belcredi (Phileas, Wien), Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya (MUSAC), Kolja Reichert (K21) und Lisa Zeitz (Weltkunst). Der VO’26 Award wird am Eröffnungswochenende verliehen und durch die großzügige Unterstützung der Förderer von Various Others ermöglicht.

Am Samstag, dem 16. Mai, wählte die Jury zwei Galerien und einen Artist-Run Space als Gewinner dieser ersten Ausgabe des VO Award aus. Die ausgewählten Galerien sind: Sperling mit „Anousha Payne: Triangle reshapes the O of my mouth“, in Zusammenarbeit mit Ushara, Concrete Poetry von Kitty Doherty, sowie max goelitz, der Hauser & Wirth einlädt mit Eva Hesse, Lukas Heerich und Rindon Johnson. Der ausgewählte Artist-Run Space ist space n.n. in Zusammenarbeit mit AlmResidency mit der Ausstellung „after the map was drawn“ mit Ivukuvuku alias Chumani Mantanga, Joachim Perez, Thandi Pinto, Fernanda Aloi und Sophie Bergemann.