The Theodor-Körner-Preis goes to Rebecca Merlic and Vik Bayer
Two alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Rebecca Merlic and Vik Bayer, were awarded the Theodor Körner Prize 2023. The award ceremony took place on June 13, 2024.
Rebecca Merlic - DOMUM Vienna. A new experience of the collective digital home
DOMUM Vienna is a project that aims to bridge the digital and physical worlds and create a place where people can come together to explore together to create a shared digital space that promotes social justice and equality. The project uses data collected by participants wearing a data ring to create a virtual world that is not a reproduction of reality, but a parallel world fed by memories and data using new technologies. The project will explore how the appropriation of personal body data can create a collective digital life experience and challenge traditional notions of home by proposing a new concept of collective digital life and virtual coexistence.
Rebecca Merlic is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Art and Architecture.
Vik Bayer - Losing Futures
Losing Futures is an essay film created together with farmers from a Sicilian cooperative. Their economic system is based on solidarity and multiple forms of care: for each other and for the land they cultivate. While the narrative revolves around the cooperative, the camera work and the style of narration test a form of storytelling in which the human gaze is decentered and at the same time the question is asked of how climatic catastrophes affect not only our lives but also the way we tell stories.
Vik Bayer recently graduated from the Institute for Fine Arts, Studio for Art and Space | Installation.
About the fund
The interest groups of Austrian workers dedicated the fund for the promotion of science and art, founded in 1953, to Theodor Körner as an honorary gift. The fund was intended to support young researchers and artists in particular who came from working-class families and therefore faced particular financial challenges in the education system. Since its founding, the Theodor Körner Fund has supported the realization of excellent work from a wide variety of disciplines every year. The awards are presented at a ceremony in the Education Center of the Vienna Chamber of Labor. Traditionally, the awards are presented by the President of the Board of Trustees and the Federal President.