Henrike Grohs Art Award ceremony cancelled

Goethe-Institut has announced the cancellation of this year’s Henrike Grohs Art Award ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was scheduled to take place in Dakar, Senegal, on 30 May, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goethe-Institut said the funds that were intended for the ceremony would be redistributed to top 17 shortlisted artists. Each artist will receive €500 ($560).

In May, Goethe-Institut unveiled Akwasi Bediako Afrane (Ghana), Jackie Karuti (Kenya) and Sabelo Mlangeni (South Africa) as the finalist of the biennial art prize. The three were selected by a jury comprising Angolan architect and independent curator Paula Nascimento, South African educator and curator Gabi Ngcobo and Egyptian writer and curator Sarah Rifky.

“The announcement of the main award winner will be shared on the Henrike Grohs Art Award website and social media platforms on 30 July 2020,” Goethe-Institut said.

The 17 shortlisted artists who would receive the once-off stipends are as follows:

• Abdessamad El Montassir (Morocco).
• Anderu Immaculate Mali ‘Immy Mali’ (Uganda).
• Aurelie Djiena (Cameroon).
• Christopher Nelson Obuh (Nigeria).
• Eva Diallo (Senegal/Switzerland).
• Francois Knoetze (South Africa).
• Ivy Brandie Chemutai Ng'ok (Kenya).
• Kitso Lelliott (Botswana/South Africa).
• Michael Soi (Kenya).
• Misheck Masamvu (Zimbabwe).
• Oupa Sibeko (South Africa).
• Patrick Bongoy (DRC/South Africa).
• Rehema Chachage (Tanzania).
• Stacey Gillian Abe (Uganda).
• Syowia Kyambi (Kenya).
• Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (South Africa/US).
• Va-Bene Elikem Kofi Fiatsi (Ghana).

The Henrike Grohs Art Award was launched in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2018. The award, which is courtesy of Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family, is in memory of Henrike Grohs, the former head of Goethe-Institut Abidjan who was killed along with 17 others during a terrorist attack in Grand-Bassam on 13 March 2016.

Grohs was instrumental in setting up the Music In Africa project in 2011. She served as a board member of the Music In Africa Foundation for two years and stepped down to focus on her responsibilities as the director of Goethe-Institut in Abidjan. She was 51 years old at the time of her death.