This year, the Friedrich Vordemberge Grant for Visual Arts of the City of Cologne goes to the sculptor Mathias Weinfurter.
Mathias Weinfurter prefers to work with ordinary materials that are familiar to us from everyday situations and that deliberately do not serve the usual notions of value in art. Of all the possible DIY items, he prefers fences in the most common design at the respective location. Not only does the industrially produced design framework of a grid suit the artist conceptually, but he is also fascinated by the function and meaning of fences in terms of content. They demarcate and exclude, define areas of power, and are so integrated into our everyday lives that they are rarely questioned. And yet border issues make up a large part of neighbourly conflicts, both private and political, with a corresponding impact on humanitarian issues. This is a rich source of themes that continue to inspire the artist.