Birgit-Jürgenssen-Prize 2009 awarded to Susanne Miggitsch

Award ceremony | 03.04.2009, 6.00 p.m.
Welcoming speech and ceremonial address in memory of Birgit Jürgenssen | Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Eulogy for the award-winner | Matthias Herrmann, Head of the department for Art and Photography, Head of the Institute for Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Presentation of the award | Andrea Ecker, Head of the Art Department in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture

As a teacher and member of various academic boards, Birgit Jürgenssen was closely bound up with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and, throughout many years, had a determining influence on the institution. From the early 1980s on, she was involved in establishing an interdisciplinary platform forging a link between painting and photography in the context of the master class of Arnulf Rainer and, subsequently, that of Peter Kogler. Until her untimely end, the relationship and contact with her students remained a crucial concern for her as a teacher.

For her work as an artist which, going far beyond the boundaries of a single medium, comprises such different forms of expression as drawing, performance, photography, video, and objects, Birgit Jürgenssen received the Federal Chancellery's award in recognition of her merits as a photographer shortly before her death. She could not be present at the award ceremony, and it is thanks to her partner Hubert Winter's wish that the amount of 11,000 euros awarded to her was donated to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as a prize for students.

According to an agreement between the Federal Chancellery, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and Hubert Winter, the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize amounting to a sum of 2,000 euros will thus be awarded in remembrance for the artist for the sixth time this year. It is awarded annually to a student of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna for her/his achievements in the media sphere, taking works of artistic photography, video and (digital) media art into special consideration.

The jury, which comprises Matthias Herrmann, Dorit Margreiter, Peter Noever, and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, has unanimously decided to award this year's Birgit Jürgenssen Prize to Susanne Miggitsch.

Birgit-Jürgenssen-prizewinner:

2004: Pirmin Blum
2005: Marlene Haring
2006: Andreas Duscha
2007: Björn Kämmerer
2008: Ulrike Köppinger
2009: Susanne Miggitsch