COLOGNE.- Anna Boghiguian (born 1946 in Cairo) has been awarded the 30th Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at the Museum Ludwig. The Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian origin has been one of the most exciting positions in contemporary art since her participation in the biennials in Istanbul in 2009 and Sharjah in 2011, and dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012. She is known for her figurative murals, (note)books, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, as well as some spectacular large-scale installations. Boghiguian's works are often created spontaneously and frequently on location, such as now in Cologne for the Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2024. She is regarded as a sensitive observer of human existence and conveys an interpretation of contemporary life in which she oscillates between past and present, poetry and politics, history and literature in a highly thoughtful manner. Her works of art celebrate a globally united humanity and focus on the after-effects of historical events and their conflicts to present options for the future through artistic reappraisal.

Her works, in which she combines verbal and visual forms of representation, have an immediate and emotional impact. Thematically, they combine the artist's in-depth historical knowledge with her sense of current debates, which in their execution seem like counterpoints to the visuals of a technologized digital world. Boghiguian's unique artistic position in terms of expression and emotionality has not yet received the attention in Germany that her authentic expressiveness deserves.

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, guest juror, explains the nomination of Anna Boghiguian: “The poetry and uniqueness of her work as well as its directness and expressiveness are ideally suited to the Museum Ludwig collection with its strong expressionist positions. Anna Boghiguian has only become internationally known in the last ten years, so this prize is not awarded for a life's work, but for a highly topical artist. She is entirely contemporary in her themes and in the connections she draws through her readings, travels and internet research between historical stories and political and aesthetic discussions of our contemporary world.”

In her installation planned for the Museum Ludwig, Anna Boghiguian examines the poem The Battle of Magnesia (1913) and other writings by the poet Konstantin Kavafis (1863-1933). The Alexandrian-born poet, whom Boghiguian appreciates for his sensitive language and universal erudition, vividly describes a battle of the Roman-Seleucid war in December 190 BC. Boghiguian's installation shows the two opposing warlords, Philip V of Macedonia with the dice-playing loser Antiochus III, at whose court Hannibal also stayed before his march across the Alps. The figures amid drawings and silhouettes combine Kavafis' poetic-historical cosmos with the artist's love of storytelling.

The daughter of an Armenian watchmaker, Anna Boghiguian studied political science and economics at the American University in Cairo in the 1960s. She moved to Canada in the early 1970s and studied art and music in Montreal. She has traveled all her life and cultivates a cosmopolitan culture. Boghiguian has her studio and residence in Cairo but also lives and works in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. In 2003 she participated in the traveling exhibition “Contemporary Arab Representation” and in the 11th and 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2009 and 2015, in the Sao Paulo Biennial in 2014 and in 2023, and she had solo exhibitions at Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2021-2022 at Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen and SMAK in Ghent. In 2015, she won the Golden Lion for the Best Pavilion (Armenia) at the 56th Venice Biennale.