YET THE WALLS GLOW 

Johanna Broziat has won the Possehl Prize for Lübeck Art 2024. The award ceremony takes place this Sunday, 27 April 2025 at 12.00 midday, combined with the opening of the exhibition YET THE WALLS GLOW in St. Catherine’s Church. The artist is presenting her prize-winning work for the first time with a voluminous installation. The brightly coloured textile sculpture was created by the artist especially for the vaulted lower choir of the former Franciscan church.

For her prize-winning project Johanna Broziat sewed together 63 m² of lycra fabric to make large panels, which she wrapped around the lower choir – the heart of St. Catherine’s Church. This stretchy, velvety fabric follows the structures of the Gothic building and bricks, its bright colours evoking the stained-glass windows that once adorned the church, of which only fragments in the St. Annen Museum now remain. The artist has created a new conduit between outside and in, past and present, which gives visitors sensory and intuitive points of access to the city’s history. 

“The installation changes our perception of the space and translates structural elements and traces of past colours into a modern artistic vernacular. We are eager to see how the public responds to this impressive piece of work”, says Prof. Dr Wolfgang Sandberger, Chair of the Possehl Foundation. 

The opening and official prize-giving ceremony takes place on Sunday, 27 April 2025 at 12.00 midday in St. Catherine’s Church. An introduction by Noura Dirani (Director of Kunsthalle St. Annen) will be followed by a laudation from Dr Maike Mastaglio (art historian) and the prize-giving by Wolfgang Sandberger. Johanna Broziat and the art historian Anna Lena Frank will then be available to take visitors on a guided tour of the exhibition space. The musical accompaniment for the event will be provided by the percussionist Prof. Johannes Fischer. 

The installation YET THE WALLS GLOW is open for viewing in St. Catherine’s Church until 12 October 2024. 

Further information: Johanna Broziat | Museum Katharinenkirche

The Possehl Art Prizes

Since 2018 two Possehl Art Prizes have focused on contemporary art and artists. They also contribute to enhancing Lübeck’s reputation as a venue for internationally recognised fine arts. The Possehl Prize for Lübeck Art was first awarded in 2018 and since 2019 the Foundation has also conferred a Possehl Prize for International Art every three years. In the years in which there is no Possehl Prize for International Art, the Possehl Prize for Lübeck Art is awarded to a local artist. The winners of both art prizes are chosen by the same jury, whose members come from internationally renowned art galleries and museums. The external members change every three years. This structure, with the same jury selecting both the local and the international prize-winners, gives the Lübeck artists the additional opportunity of getting themselves and their work known outside the confines of the town in which they are primarily active.