The Berlin Blue Art Gallery (BBA) Prize Exhibition has become a stalwart fixture in the city’s cultural calendar, but ten years ago, founders Renata Kudlacek and Vishal Shah were just two artists looking to change the industry. The pair launched an artist platform in 2015, but knew they wanted to be more than just a gallery space.
“We never wanted to just show art – we wanted to push the boundaries of how it’s thought about,” said Shah. We spoke to BBA’s Melis Omalar as the team prepares for the opening of their landmark 10th anniversary exhibition at Kühlhaus Berlin.
It’s really important to us to not just feature artists in a prize once…but rather to nurture them long term.
Take us back to ten years ago, how did this all begin? What inspired the creation of the prize?
We started out 10 years ago as an artist-run curatorial space and in 2017 became the gallery known as the BBA. Because Renata and Vishal are both artists, they have personal experience of all the barriers and gatekeeping that can exist in the art world, especially if you come from a non-traditional background.
From the beginning, their aim was to break down those barriers and make art accessible for all – both the artists and the viewers. They wanted to create a prize with no experience-based criteria: for the BBA Artists Prize you don’t have to have gone to a specific school or learned under a specific professor, it doesn’t matter to us how old you are or where you’re from, what matters is if your work is great.
How has the prize evolved in the ten years since it was established?
When we started out, it was really uncommon in the art world to have a prize like this. It seems silly to think of it as revolutionary, but back then it really was. You know, our youngest artist was 18 and oldest artist was eighty, and every year we feature around 20 to 30 different nationalities. We’ve created a number of prizes, there’s two prizes held annually – that’s the BBA Artist Prize and the BBA Photography Prize – but we also created the One Shot Award, the Made in Berlin Art Award, and we’ve started doing online exhibition open calls too.
Are you doing anything special for the tenth anniversary?
Yes, but I don’t want to spoil too much. This anniversary is our way of thanking the artists, curators and partners who believed in us during the last ten years and honoring the city that inspires us. We’re going to be holding our biggest show ever, expanding over 3 floors of the Kühlhaus and we’re expecting over 3,500 visitors.
How does the jury judge the entries? What criteria are you basing it on?
Each year we get thousands of applications and it’s never an easy job for the jury to decide which artists will make the shortlist. Lot’s of time and love goes into it. Because our jury has a background working as artists or collectors and so on, they know all the hard work that goes into putting yourself out there and applying for these competitions. The jury reviews the artist’s mission, their vision for their work, and judges if they are a good fit for the gallery.
What impact can making it to the shortlist have on an artist?
I don’t want to exaggerate but I would consider it life-changing. It’s really important to us to not just feature artists in a prize once and leave it there but rather to nurture them long term. We still work with many of the artists who we featured in previous prizes, and even if we don’t choose to represent you, we still aim to work with you the best we can.
We offer networking support which can be invaluable, particularly when you come from a non-traditional background. We’ve heard from featured artists about how much the prize empowers them. As artists, one of the biggest things we can struggle with is self-doubt, so having the safe space to grow as an artist through the BBA is really impactful.
Looking forward into the future, what legacy do you hope the prize leaves?
We are really proud that we have challenged the status quo of the art world, particularly in Germany. I like to believe that we have fundamentally changed the way that galleries present themselves. I hope that in the future we continue on this journey.
- Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Str. 3, Kreuzberg. 22 May – 1 Jun. Opening 22 May 19:00, awards ceremony 24 May, details.
