Special Prize ( 1.000 €) Ria Gerth, Silence

The camera glides over a blossoming rape field, the horizon is wide. Colour filters create shimmering yellow and green tones. The idyll is abruptly destroyed by a detonation that spreads as a bluish wisp of smoke along the edge of the field. No sooner has it dissipated than the camera moves on until another detonation occurs. The video ends with silence over the rape field.
With this dense and precisely conceived video work, the artist refers to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which destroyed any hope of lasting peace in Europe, claimed human lives, disrupted food chains in the agricultural economy and turned nature into a war zone.
The video Silence received the special prize due to its high artistic quality.

Jury text from the jurors.