On the occasion of the award of the Possehl Prize for International Art, the Kunsthalle St. Annen is the first museum in Germany to present a major solo exhibition by Indian artist Shilpa Gupta. The exhibition presents an overview of her work, which spans several decades of artistic work and a variety of artistic approaches.
With the Possehl Prize for International Art, the Possehl Foundation honors pioneering representatives of international contemporary art for their life's work or an outstanding work or group of works. The award is a Possehl Foundation prize. It includes prize money of €25,000 and an exhibition in Lübeck. The prize is presented in the categories of sculpture, installation, new media, and performance and action art. Shilpa Gupta is the third recipient of the Possehl Prize for International Art, following Doris Salcedo and Matt Mullican.
Shilpa Gupta © Felix König
Exploring boundaries through art
In her artistic work, Shilpa Gupta addresses important issues in contemporary society, such as belonging, security, censorship, religion, freedom of expression, and human rights. The topic of borders is particularly central. For over two decades, Shilpa Gupta has explored the effects of borders and the demarcation of borders by state apparatuses on societies that, particularly in border regions, define themselves through far more than national affiliation. Her works demonstrate a profound engagement with the issues of social, geographical, and psychological border demarcation and their influence on public life, which are particularly relevant in times of growing legal pressure in Germany, Europe, and the world.
Her artistic work addresses the ever-growing national public sphere in India, which is shaped by gender and class barriers, religious differences, the persistent power of repressive state apparatuses, and deceptive notions of public consensus. Language and its inherent power form a central focus of her artistic work. Her overall oeuvre encompasses various new media, such as robotic works, photographic slides, interactive sound videos, motorized mechanisms, found objects, as well as computer-aided installations and public performances. This makes Shilpa Gupta one of the most important media artists of our time, influencing several generations of artists to this day. Shilpa Gupta's oeuvre establishes clear references to Western Conceptual Art of the late 1960s and expands it with a perspective that moves outside of Eurocentric art historiography. With this approach, she provides significant impulses for the emergence of contemporary art in the sense of a global art history.
Shilpa Gupta Under Your Sky, too, 2004 – ongoing time-based light installation © Shilpa Gupta, courtesy the artist and neugerriemschneider, Berlin, photo Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Shilpa Gupta's works offer the opportunity to reconsider issues of global relevance through the lens of locality through art. Due to its geographical location in Germany and its transnational relationships, some of which date back a long time, Lübeck remains an important hub for its neighbors to the north, east, and around the world. As a city located in a former periphery, Lübeck is particularly shaped by the experience of the border. What experiences do people have in these sensitive border areas? How do they continue to affect the neighboring areas, but also the identity and sense of belonging of the people living there?
The exhibition offers the opportunity to connect themes of global relevance with aspects of local history and identity. Shilpa Gupta's works provide important impulses for reflection on universal themes that connect societies, transcend borders, and occasionally disrupt Eurocentric narratives.
27 September 2025 to 1 March 2026
https://kunsthalle-st-annen.de
