The Project Funding Program 2024 supports four outstanding media art projects with a total volume of 100,000 euros, which will enrich the diversity and promote the exchange in the UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Karlsruhe. After intensive examination and discussion by the expert jury, two international and two German projects were selected from over 200 submissions. The funded works stand for innovative approaches and offer exciting artistic positions that open up both regional and international perspectives on media art. Thematically, the projects deal intensively with the pressing issues of our time: global crises, massive biodiversity loss and the dynamics of impending ecological collapse.
By launching the Project Funding Program internationally for the first time, Karlsruhe is emphasizing its claim to promote new artistic impulses across borders and to intensify cooperation within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Dr. Dominika Szope, Head of the Department of Cultural Affairs, commented: “It is impressive to see how this international exchange has reached new dimensions with this year’s call. The selected projects not only reflect important social issues, but also the heterogeneity of media art beyond the borders of our UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Karlsruhe.”
Three of the four funded projects will already be presented in 2025 as part of the exhibition Media art is here, which will once again take place from August to September alongside the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE in Karlsruhe. The fourth work, a Karlsruhe-based project, will follow in 2026 and thus use a prolonged development process for an extraordinary realization in which the participation of citizens will be the focus.
The Project Funding Program makes a decisive contribution to highlighting new media art works in Karlsruhe that open up interdisciplinary perspectives, address current social issues and promote artistic debate in public spaces. The exhibition Media art is here enables visitors to experience the funded projects free of charge and to directly experience the artistic impulses of a globally networked media art scene.
The expert jury, chaired by Dominika Szope, included Daniela Burkhardt (UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts I Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Karlsruhe), Anja Casser (Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe e.V.), Prof. Filipa César (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design), Prof. Marijke van Warmerdam (State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe) and Philipp Ziegler (ZKM I Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe).
Further information on the UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Karlsruhe can be found at www.cityofmediaarts.de.
