Berlin/Los Angeles am 1. November 2020

Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House is proud to present our 2021 and 2022 artists-in-residence for Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. Awardees were selected by independent specialist juries.

Kurt Drawert („Dresden. Die zweite Zeit“ 2020), Lukas Rietzschel („Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen“, 2018), and Bettina Wilpert („nichts was uns passiert“, 2018) were selected for the 2022 fellowships in literature. The residencies of 2020 writers-in-residence Paula Fürstenberg, Enis Maci, Pascal Richmann, and Kathrin Schmidt have been postponed to 2021.
The literature jury included Florian Höllerer (Literarisches Colloquium Berlin), Tanja Graf (Literaturhaus Munich), Christiane Lange (Haus für Poesie), Ijoma Mangold (Die Zeit), and Stefanie Stegman (Literaturhaus Stuttgart).

Florian Baron (“Stress”, 2018) and Ulu Braun (“Saturne”, 2020) were selected in the film category. In addition, the jury awarded the Media Board Berlin Brandenburg Fellowship to Anna Sofie Hartmann (“Giraffe”, 2020). Isabelle Stever's 2020 residency has been postponed to 2021. The film jury included Veronika Grob (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg), Nicole Kaufmann (German Films), Cosima Lutz (freelance journalist), Ekkehard Knörer (Cargo, Merkur),and Mariette Rissenbeek (Berlinale).

In the music category, Colin Hacklander and Farahnaz Hatam were selected for a joint fellowship in 2021. Carola Bauckholt, Ute Wassermann, and Philipp Krebs have received scholarships for 2022. The 2020 residencies of Sabine Vogel, Alex Nowitz, and Felix Kubin have been postponed to 2021. The music jury included Julia Gerlach (Akademie der Künste, Berlin), Andrea Neumann (musician and composer), Elena Mendoza (composer, University of the Arts, Berlin), Rainer Pöllmann (Deutschlandradio Kultur, Ultraschall Berlin - Festival for New Music), and Michael Rebhahn (SWR2).

Anna Haifisch, Antje Majewski and Clemens von Wedemeyer were awarded the 2022 residency grants in visual arts. The 2020 residencies of Nadine Fecht, Paul Hutchinson, and Annika Kahrs have been postponed to 2021.The visual arts jury included Jens Asthoff (author and freelance critic), Stephan Berg (Kunstmuseum Bonn), Anne-Marie Bonnet (Art History Institute of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn), Stef Heidhues (artist), Anette Hüsch (Kunsthalle zu Kiel), and Gabriele Knapstein (Hamburger Bahnhof).

In addition, musician Ilgen-Nur was selected for the Musicboard Berlin Fellowship in a separate selection process back in May. MFG FILM Funding's MFG Star Award was bestowed on Nora Fingscheidt ("System Crasher", 2019). Visual artists Sarah Szczesny and Robin Stretz were selected for fellowships funded by KunstSalon Cologne and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation respectively.