The award:

The Dorothea von Stetten Art Award has been presented at the Kunstmuseum Bonn every two years since 1984. Since 2014, the prize has been focusing on young artists from Germany’s neighbouring countries, with the aim of strengthening transnational networks. This year, the jury awarded the prize, worth 10,000 euros, to Tohé Commaret, who will share the prize money with her fellow finalists.

The winner:

The jury selected Tohé Commaret’s presentation from the entries submitted by the three finalists, explaining their decision as follows:

‘We were deeply impressed by the high quality of all three nominated artists’ works. We were particularly impressed by both the works themselves and the spatial arrangements. We would particularly like to highlight the close collaboration on the exhibition, which is reflected in the shared introductory space. In the context of an award ceremony, we see this collaborative approach as a respectful gesture between the artists.
Of the three finalists, Tohé Commaret’s works moved us the most. Through her striking visual language, she captures both the poetry and hope and the doubts and uncertainties of the present. The Parisian suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine, where the artist grew up, serves as the setting and protagonist for everyday life. For her installation at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, she makes use of the unusual architecture of the small auditorium to expand her cinematic universe through precise spatial arrangements.

This year’s finalists Tohé Commaret (b. 1992), Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit (b. 1992) and Pol Taburet (b. 1997) are united by their self-assured visual aesthetics. These artists are rethinking the conventions of familiar media such as painting and film. They were selected among ten nominees by a jury consisting of: Liberty Adrien (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin), Anna Fricke (Museum Folkwang, Essen), Elisabeth Kihlström (2024 prize-winner), Viktor Neumann (Bonner Kunstverein) and Friederike Voßkamp (Museum August Macke Haus, Bonn).

The finalists:

Tohé Commaret (*1992, nominated by Martha Kirszenbaum)
The Franco-Chilean filmmaker works at the crossroads between experimental cinema and documentary film. Her films look at toxic relationships, sex work and criminalisation as she combines socio-political themes with a climate of intimacy. Here, harsh realities are confronted by youthful dreams. The mostly female protagonists, often children or teenagers, are socially marginalised, and confined by their environment and the concrete apartment houses of the suburbs. And yet, their boundless imaginations help them to defy traditional power structures and asymmetries. Tohé Commaret thus rejects the presumption of her characters’ helplessness, instead discovering among them moving stories of solidarity and hope.

Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit  (*1992, nominated by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster)
The artist and filmmaker creates in her works fragile landscapes in which architecture and memory intermingle. She uses lighting, sound and miniatures, such as small model houses, to create illusionary spaces and déjà vus. In the museum’s galleries, we encounter like old acquaintances the train stations and urban transit zones that form the hubs of our everyday lives. The artist explores in this way how we see the world around us, awakening memories of these places where time feels somehow different. She does not as a rule include any figures, leaving us to lose ourselves in the enigmatic atmosphere of her experiential spaces.

Pol Taburet  (*1997, nominated by Chiara Parisi)
In his paintings, sculptures, drawings and installations, Pol Taburet tells mysterious tales as if they were plays. Caribbean visual memories meet up with pop culture and references from the canon of European art history. He draws inspiration from artists such as Arnold Böcklin and Edvard Munch as well as from sacred memories, trap music and television series from his youth including South Park and The Simpsons. Taburet combines traditional techniques with airbrushing to create the shadowy bodies of his distorted figures. Often reflecting his own biography, his unconventional narratives range between self-development, threat and theatricality.