In cooperation with Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes grants another scholarship in 2019 for a stay at the artist's residence called Villa Aurora. Out of a variety of applications, the choice fell on the video and performance artist Max Göran. He will live and work in Los Angeles from early January to mid-February.

Max Göran lives in Berlin, where he is currently enrolled at the University of Arts participting the class of Prof. Josephine Pryde. His work focuses on video, installation and performance and includes strategies for negotiating criticism. He often approaches his subjects with humor and metaphors. His perfromances include contemporary dance and performance and consideres collaborations as an integral part of his practice. Together with the artist Josefin Arnell, he forms the duo "HellFun". Göran has a documentary background that influences many of his video works.

During his upcoming stay at the Villa Aurora, Max Göran will focus on his current video project "When scabies-foxes die they go to Los Angeles". A stray desert fox, which is weakened by sickness stands as a parable for the "undesirable". Placing the fox as a projection surface, Göran will use both documentary and experimental methods to create an essayistic excursion into how emotional responses play out and create power structures through a sort of “feeling by proxy”.

Since 2015 the Villa Aurora has been residing one scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes for a period of six weeks each year. Previous fellows were James Gregory Atkinson, Benedict Bjerre, Bertrand Flanet and Jana Schulz.