Diploma exhibition 2024 ADBK Munich

The 2024 diploma exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich appealed to all the senses: From seeing to feeling to smelling. A recurring theme was nature and human interaction with it. The diploma exhibition also encouraged a critical examination of social media and showed the potential loss of control that comes with it. Around 70 graduates presented their work over five days, as always at the end of the winter semester. Art from the fields of sculpture, stage design and costume, photography, painting and graphics, media art, performance as well as jewelry and equipment could be discovered in the classes, workshops and garden.

Visitors to the space occupied by Eduardo Palomares are greeted by a balsamic scent reminiscent of long days by the sea. Especially for the presentation of his work entitled “Vernantibus Oceanum – Blooming Ocean” at the 2024 diploma exhibition, the artist has composed a fragrance together with perfumers from Givaudan to take us on the journey of the fictional plant “Vernantibus Oceanum”. The room, bathed in blue light, shows the individual stages of vegetation of the fantastic plant and thus describes a cycle of growth and decay.

Nina Markhardt has also dealt with cycles in nature in her work “Small world – mycelium – microcosm – communication – transformation – network – system – biomaterial – fungi – mosses – lichens – healing – cycle – process – tissue – resonance – network – fusion – symbiosis – world in world…”. In addition to found objects from nature, her presentation also shows oil paintings that resemble microscope images of mosses, lichens and fungi. The artist spans an arc from three-dimensional objects to two-dimensional representations and from the large to the small. And describes her work as follows: “In every world lives a smaller world. In the cosmos of lichens, fungi and mosses, there is an organic network that connects everything.”

In 2012, Zarah Abraham posted a video performance online that was destined to go viral. The video was and is shared millions of times internationally and the artist unintentionally became a virtual mystery. Her posts and data are still being circulated and shared today. Zarah Abraham developed her ongoing project “Comments on my digital identity” from this. There she collects and documents the interaction of her digital identity and collects the reactions of users. She has been observing her digital self for years and, in addition to likes and shares, also receives many unwanted, sometimes sexist comments and photos. She documents the loss of control over her digital existence and tries to reclaim it for herself. In the darkened room, in which she projects the comments onto the walls, among other things, she encourages viewers to critically question social media and their own posts.

In the 2024 diploma exhibition, Leonard Schulz presents his work entitled “Ephemeral landscapes” in the basement of the Academy building. Through a darkened corridor, visitors enter a room that radiates a certain coolness and humidity. They are greeted by light and airy, brightly lit foam formations. The installation, which is made up of ever-changing mountains of foam, is dedicated to the question of how water as a material can be given agency. With the addition of air, surfactants and light, the foamy landscapes change and display their own rhythm, which at the same time proves to be fleeting. Viewers can therefore expect a constantly changing work of art that invites them to discover landscapes and to pay attention to the constantly changing and transient forms.

Merlin Stadler ‘s work “De rerum natura – On the Nature of Things” is dedicated to the themes of love, mourning, memories, species extinction, myth-making and ecological catastrophes and will be presented at this year’s diploma exhibition. At the same time, it also addresses the question of the difference between the natural and the unnatural. The video work presents the true story of the Australian gannet Nigel on Mana Island near New Zealand in an animated 3D short film. Concrete dummies were built as part of a project to repopulate the island with gannets. Nigel fell in love with one of the concrete birds and showed no interest in his living conspecifics. When he died, a ranger found him dead right next to his beloved dummy. The film is accompanied by a soundtrack of birdsongs of extinct or endangered birds provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Diplomas were also awarded in a ceremony at the 2024 Diploma Exhibition on February 8, 2024. The academy prizes were also announced. There were ten prizewinners in total. The following prizes were awarded: The Academy Association Prize went to Anna Schübel from Professor Armin Linke’s class, the Franz Altmann Foundation Prize was awarded jointly to Aelita Le Quément and Veronica Burnuthian (Toulu Hassani class) and to Merlin Stadeler (Professor Alexandra Pirici class), as part of the Debutant:Eduardo Palomares (class of Professor Alexandra Pirici), Jonas Höschl, Ju Young Kim (both class of Professor Olaf Nicolai), Rosanna Marie Pondorf (class of Professor Peter Kogler), the prize of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) went to Georgina Kaw from the class of Professor Florian Pumhösl and the prize of the Academy of Art Foundation was awarded to Tatjana Vall from the class of Professor Pamela Rosenkranz.