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Six outstanding art graduates receive A⁴ – Austrian Art Alumni Award 2025

To the press statement

This year, the Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research (BMFWF) and the art universities awarded a new scholarship to young artists. We warmly congratulate our graduates Anahita Asadifar and Elena Kristofor on their awards!

On Monday, October 13, 2025, the award was presented in a festive setting at the mdw University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna by Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner in the presence of the rectors of all six art universities. The winners of the first A4 – Austrian Art Alumni Award impressed with their creativity, the diversity of their forms of expression, and the topicality of the themes they addressed in their art projects: War, loss, solidarity, and nature are portrayed and addressed through dance, music, (audio-)visual art, or theater. Equally impressive were the work projects that the award winners will implement over the next twelve months as part of a scholarship. One thing is already clear: The A4 – Austrian Art Alumni Award will significantly promote and support their artistic development.


The winners of the first A4 – Austrian Art Alumni Award 2025 are:

  • Anna Arkushyna for "Unnatural Selection for Ensemble and Electronics"
  • Anahita Asadifar for "Tracking Our Way Through Time"
  • Paul Takuda Chiwona for "Underwaterbodies"
  • Elena Kristofor for an investigation into the inscriptions of war in Ukrainian natural landscapes / Liminal spaces of destruction and memory
  • Marlene Muthspiel for "frei.sein (Ensemble nilena)"
  • Alek Niemiro for "Last Hour of Resistance"

Starting this year, the A4 – Austrian Art Alumni Award will be presented annually to selected, outstanding graduates of Austrian universities of the arts. The award includes a twelve-month scholarship of €24,000 each, which is intended to enable the recipients to realize art projects in Austria and abroad. The award is a cooperation between the public art universities and the Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research.