Antwerp Art Graduation Prize 2024

In 2024, Antwerp art awarded the second Antwerp Art Graduation Prize. With this prize, Antwerp Art seeks to support the development of young artists not yet associated with any organisation. Every year, two students with a master’s degree in fine arts are selected based on their graduation projects: one from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (KASKA) and one from Sint Lucas Antwerp (SLA). The Graduation Prize consists of a cash prize and an exhibition of new work during Antwerp Art Weekend.

Discover the works by Julia Tröscher (SLA), Juli Bierich (KASKA) and Emma Mann at M HKA, our central location during Antwerp Art Weekend 2025, on the museum’s 6th floor. The presentation runs until 08.06.

For more information: Antwerp Art Graduation Prize 2024

Julia Tröscher – Everything has been said, not done

Rooted in the idea that all beings and things are materially connected, ‘Everything has been said, not done’ examines how our current reality settings — metaphysical assumptions about what is real, meaningful and possible — shape our world views and limit our imagination. Drawing on Federico Campagna’s critique of an ‘absolute language’ that frames reality through a technocentric lens, the piece questions how language, culture, and media condition anthropocentric perspectives.

The work considers the impact of short-form video content as both a reflection of cultural values and a tool of escapism that fragments attention and thought. Through an essayistic, split-screen collage of found footage from various social media platforms as well as original footage, it looks at how we engage with a world in crisis, and whether algorithm-driven content can be re-imagined to foster empathy and to envision alternative futures. Recognising energy as unfixed potential, ‘Everything has been said, not done’ invites viewers into a reflective space where empathy becomes a mode of attention, leaning into the idea that how we imagine reality might be the first step toward healing it.

About Julia Tröscher

Julia Tröscher lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Her practice centres around post- anthropocentric ecology and alternative knowledge systems, challenging dominant narratives of human exceptionalism. She is currently a studio resident with MORPHO Antwerpen at the graduate’s program held at Borrewaterstraat 1. Tröscher graduated from Central Saint Martins with a First Class Honours Bachelor Degree in Fine Art in 2021 and obtained her Master of Visual Art from Sint Lucas Antwerpen in 2024.

Juli Bierich and Emma Mann – Brace, Brace

‘Brace, Brace’ is a performance and installation by Juli Bierich and Emma Mann. The two shared a communal upbringing in Berlin and have been collaborating since 2024 for their project ‘Go Big or Go Home’, exhibited in Antwerp, Belgium. In this performance, they explored the duality of competition and security in group dynamics and identities through improvisational movements guided by a set of rules, similar to sports games. In ‘Brace, Brace’ they dive further into the topic of social movements and examine contemporary ways of dealing with today’s uncertainty.

They examine how we navigate a world marked by unpredictability and the loss of shared beliefs. Using the setting of an airport waiting area—a liminal space between departure and arrival—they explore the tension between control and helplessness. Performers enact safety instructions, mimicking emergency preparation as a ritualized response to fear. By staging these actions in a performative context, ‘Brace, Brace’ reflects on how societies ritualize control mechanisms to manage fear and question whether these structures provide true security or merely reinforce collective numbness.

The performance (30″) takes place on Thursday 29 May, 20:00 and Saturday 31 May, 16:00.

About Emma Mann and Juli Bierich Kobayashi

Emma Mann is an artist who works at the intersection of performance and narrative, combining text, video, and body in space. She explores the ambivalence of group dynamics and the potential of aesthetic spaces for political and social reflection. In addition to her artistic work, she is active as a dancer and singer, and involved in curatorial, cultural, and peer-led educational initiatives. Her recent focus lies in the collectivization of authorship and the performative staging of bodies in space.

Juli Bierich Kobayashi’s practice explores the “In between“ of public and personal spaces, using various mediums, with a focus on wearable pieces. The body is serving as a necessary component to her work and can be regarded as a tool, that leaves and is also left with, traces of these life actions, functioning as a documentary canvas.