Zu­rich Art Pri­ze 2024: Olaf Holz­ap­fel

The Zurich Art Prize, awarded annually by the Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd., goes to Olaf Holzapfel (*1967 in Dresden, lives and works in Berlin and Brandenburg) in 2024. He is the 17th winner of the prestigious award. The prize, worth CHF 100,000, consists of a budget of CHF 80,000 for the production of a solo exhibition in the Museum Haus Konstruktiv and a prize sum of CHF 20,000.

Olaf Holzapfel's multifaceted work deals with the conception and materiality of spaces. After focusing in particular on megalopolises and their relationship to virtual space in the 2000s - he observed a relationship between grids of urban structures and digital grids on the Internet - his interest increasingly shifted to the physical-material place. Since then, Holzapfel has been looking for ways to artistically resolve dualities such as city and landscape, inside and outside, or virtual and real image spaces and to describe them as something flowing. This results in a constant exchange between these forces. Central to him is the intercultural exchange with artists and craftsmen and the use of vernacular techniques. For over ten years, Holzapfel has been working with weavers from the Wichí community in the Gran Chaco in Argentina and with carpenters from Lower Saxony, who implement his designs using natural and local materials such as wood, straw, or natural fibers.