One of the two patrons didn’t come after all: Gerhard Polt, apparently exhausted from the celebrations around his 80th birthday, had sent his apologies and this time decided not to visit the Small Theater Haar, where the Upper Bavarian art prize “Seelen- Art” was awarded. The absence of the cabaret artist, whose wife Tini Polt was part of the seven-member jury alongside other curators, art historians and artists, was not so important – in his sense, so to speak – because the focus should of course be on others that evening anyway: the almost 50 Artists who have received awards, people from or with a connection to Upper Bavaria who have had psychiatric experience and deal “with their mental health through art,” as Matthias Riedel-Rüppel, director of the Small Theater Haar, explained in his speech.
The special thing about this celebration in the light-flooded theater hall is the meeting of people for whom it is not normal to present themselves in public and to experience feedback. Her courage to face it on stage and the openness with which she confronts her mental scars in her works, which are often referred to as “outsider art”, was appreciated by the speakers, including Riedel-Rüppel District President Josef Mederer and Haar Mayor Andreas Bukowski (both CSU) belonged.
The art promotion prize has been awarded by the social psychiatric center of the clinics in the district of Upper Bavaria since 2010/11 and aims to make inclusive art nationally visible; The SZ Advent calendar is one of the sponsors. The “Seelen-Art” project, which was largely initiated by Peter Vaitl, a senior physician in Haar, wants to contribute to the destigmatization of mental illnesses with the help of art and culture. The offerings range from the day care center with an open art studio on the Ladehofstraße in Haar, to the theatre, through to the Seelen-Art-Galerie and a cabaret subscription series.
The small theater was now also promoted to a gallery. In the hall, in the foyer and on the first floor, the works of almost 50 artists who were honored that evening could be seen – a total of more than 600 works by 174 participants were submitted. “Seelen-Art has become a brand,” said Mederer, the project’s second patron.
Titus Waldenfels and Michael Reiserer (from left) were responsible for the musical accompaniment.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Of course, the selection of works shown was characterized by an enormous variety in style and subject, but in fact the direct confrontation with emotional wounds is often striking: an often surprising art from the hidden, formally and in terms of color, sometimes very original, very dense and from the Coming from the subconscious, created as it were in creative soliloquy. The orientation to art history or zeitgeist plays little or no role. “What we see here isn’t therapy, it’s art,” Riedel-Rüppel clarified. And: “You are all winners.”
A number of third, second and first prizewinners were awarded, as well as the best three – which became a quintet this year due to a tie: Lilli Mayer received the third prize, Serge Vollin, Vinh Tuong Nguyen and Günter Neupel, who shared the second prize is one of the well-known protagonists of the southern German outsider art scene. First prize went to Mark Steffen Weber, whose acrylic paintings were particularly convincing because of their attractive contrasting color effect and the power to externally shape inner unrest.
Serge Vollin, born in Algeria in 1946 and has lived in Bavaria for 40 years, paints colorfully and densely in his works, pushing the brush into the limitless. “I’m only happy when I’m unhappy,” explains Vollin, who is also an author. He and Peter Vaitl greet each other like old acquaintances at the theater – because they are old acquaintances. Facilities like the one in Haar helped him develop artistically, says Vollin: “Oh, the price doesn’t matter. I paint every day.”