Opening
Friday, 12 September 2025 | 6 pm

Words of welcome
Justin Time, Board Member, Deutscher Künstlerbund
Dr. Urban Pappi, Executive Director, VG Bild-Kunst
Frank Michael Zeidler, Board Member, Stiftung Kunstfonds

About the exhibition
On the occasion of the presentation of the HAP Grieshaber Prize 2025, Cornelia Sollfrank takes the invitation to a solo exhibition as an opportunity not only to present a selection of her own works, but also to provide insight into the »world« that this work has helped to create: a long-standing relational network of Berlin-based and international agents.

Since the early days of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, Cornelia Sollfrank has been exploring how the potential of digitally networked media can be used to question traditional aesthetic categories and experiment with new forms of political engagement. In her artistic and academic work on digital cultures, she repeatedly deals with artistic infrastructures, new forms of (political) self-organization, critical authorship, the aesthetics of the commons, the performativity of data, and techno-feminist practice and theory.

One of her main areas of work is the paradoxes that copyright law creates in the digital age. Her multi-part work This is not by me explores questions of authorship and originality. It includes videos, collages, performances, and texts, all revolving around the iconic Warhol flowers. She calls her method »performative copyright infringement,« which also forms the basis of her practice-based PhD (2011). During her ten years of engagement with copyright law, she developed a particular interest in commons, especially digital commons, on which she has also done research and published.

Based on gender-specific and institution-critical approaches, Sollfrank focuses on the development of organizational forms – such as artist groups, collectives, networks, associations, or digital platforms – as well as communication infrastructures as part of her artistic practice. She was a founding member of the artist groups frauen-und-technik (1992) and -Innen (1994), initiated and organized the cyberfeminist network Old Boys Network (1997–2001), and has been working with the technofeminist collective #purplenoise since 2018.

In addition to her international practice, Sollfrank is also committed to promoting a critical Internet culture in the local context. She founded the mailing list [echo] in 2003 (currently over 1,800 members), was co-founder and editor of the online magazine THE THING Hamburg (2006), and initiated the cultural-political intervention Tamm-Tamm in 2005/06, in which over 100 artists participated.

Her practice and her way of thinking and working are deeply influenced by fundamental feminist principles, which she keeps alive by applying them to current issues in society, often related to new technologies. For Cornelia Sollfrank, collaboration is a fundamental element of her artistic work; she also wants to express this aspect in her upcoming exhibition and is therefore inviting a total of 14 agents from her network to participate and giving them a presence in the exhibition. To do this, she is using the technical possibilities of Augmented Reality.

In times of dwindling support for art and culture, the work of these initiatives is under threat; which is another reason why the artist wants to send a message of solidarity and use the exhibition as an opportunity to honor the collaboration with these people and initiatives. »We don't want to complain, we are not afraid and we are not discouraged, but rather we celebrate ourselves, what we have created, and stand together to resist any anti-cultural policies.«

On the occasion of Cornelia Sollfrank's award, two short films about the artist were produced by Basiliscus Film with funding from VG Bild-Kunst.

Friends
BethaSpace; bildwechsel – umbrella association for women, media, culture; Disruption Network Lab Berlin; EECLECTIC; Furtherfield London; God's Entertainment; medienwerkstatt im kulturwerk des bbk berlin; monoskop (Dusan Barok); mz* baltazar's lab; nag_team; neural Magazine (Alessandro Ludovico); panke.gallery; #purplenoise; VNS Matrix; Andy Warhol; Zentrum für Netzkunst e.V.

Accompanying event
»Critical knowledge and communication infrastructure as aesthetic practice«.

Workshop for the tech*feminist art scene in Berlin.
November 19, 2025 | 10:30 a.m.
With Wiki Riot Squad, Berlin and Shusha Niederberger, CH.

Attendance at the accompanying event is free of charge, but registration is requested: info@kuenstlerbund.de

About the artist
Cornelia Sollfrank (Berlin) is an artist and researcher.
She studied fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. She received her doctorate from the University of Dundee (UK) with a thesis on the conflicting relationship between art and copyright. The title of her dissertation is: Performing the Paradoxes of Intellectual Property.

HAP-Grieshaber-Preis der VG Bild-Kunst
As one of Germany’s most richly endowed art prizes (25,000 euros), the HAP Grieshaber Prize has been awarded since 1999 for outstanding achievements in contemporary art. Previous winners include Rosa Barba, Gert & Uwe Tobias, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Maya Schweizer, Nana Petzet and Ngozi Ajah Schommers. Since 2003, the annual exhibition of the winner’s work has been hosted by the Deutscher Künstlerbund. The prize and the exhibition are organized in close cooperation by VG Bild-Kunst, Stiftung Kunstfonds and Deutscher Künstlerbund.

The painter and woodcutter HAP Grieshaber played a key part in the initiative to establish VG Bild-Kunst, Germany’s copyright agency for visual art. From the 1970s onwards, Grieshaber campaigned hard for copyright on behalf of his fellow artists, as well as being a strong advocate of improved social support for artists.

The prize money for the HAP Grieshaber is provided by Stiftung Kulturwerk, the cultural organization of VG Bild-Kunst, using funds held back in accordance with the agency’s plans for copyright payments. The prize is thus a mark of recognition for artists from artists. Each year’s winner is selected by the trustees of Stiftung Kunstfonds from the applicants for working grants.

VG Bild-Kunst and Stiftung Kunstfonds in cooperation with the Deutscher Künstlerbund
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