Henrike Grohs Art Award Names Rehema Chachage 2026 Laureate in Final Edition

The Henrike Grohs Art Award has concluded with its final edition, naming Tanzanian artist Rehema Chachage as the 2026 laureate. She receives a €20,000 prize and support for a major publication. Chachage's practice spans performance, video, text, scent, and installation, creating sensory environments that function as a 'performative archive' in collaboration with her mother and grandmother. The jury praised her conceptual clarity and ability to dissolve boundaries between community and institution. Two finalists were also recognized: Tunisian filmmaker and visual artist Younès Ben Slimane, whose work uses silence and visual disruption to challenge cinematic structures, and Egyptian artist Rania Atef, who employs participation and play to examine domestic spaces and power dynamics. The award received over 600 applications from more than 30 African countries. Benjamin Bergner of the Goethe-Institut noted the award's legacy of artistic freedom and exchange, honoring Henrike Grohs. The final edition is framed not as an ending but as a transformation, with the artists' practices pointing toward a future that values process, connection, and multiplicity.