March 15 till 06 April, 2013

The Szpilman Award is celebrating its ten-year anniversary this year. Since 2003, the international jury has chosen several shortlist candidates and a winner from a pool of up to 400 submitted works and documentation. The winner receives a trophy, a jackpot stipend and a ten-day stay in the idyllic Polish village Chimochowizna. They are also invited to participate as a guest juror in the next jury meeting. Unlike other art prizes, the winning works no longer exist by the time they are awarded; the Szpilman Award is given to ephemeral works – in other words, actions, situations or arrangements that only exist for a short period of time.

Szpilman currently consists of Bernd Euler (Berlin), Lise Harlev (Berlin), Leonard Kahlcke (London), Patrick Koch (Berlin), Tina Kohlmann (Frankfurt), Claus Richter (Cologne), Tina Schott (Antwerp) and Michal Sznajder (Krakow).

The winner and shortlists for the years 2003-2012 can be found on the Szpilman website www.award.szpilman.de, while the blog www.potz.blitz.szpilman.de features a collection of excellent ephemeral works.

Since 2006, Szpilman has also presented either winners or other wonderful things in exhibitions.  It is along these lines that, from 20 – 27 November 2010, members solved a 10,000-piece puzzle of Titian’s “Amor Sacre e Amor Profano” at the Villa Romana Florence, re-enacted famous ephemeral performances at Duende Studios Rotterdam in November 2009 or filled “La Placette”, an exhibition space in Lausanne, Switzerland, with hundreds of trophies and other fine-smelling things.

To celebrate 10 years since the group’s founding, members Patrick Koch, Tina Kohlmann, Claus Richter and Tina Schott will present and vacuum-clean at an evening full of magic and poetry at Galerie Clages in Cologne.