On the occasion of the awarding of the Possehl Prize for International Art, the Kunsthalle St. Annen is the first museum in Germany to present a major solo exhibition of the Indian artist Shilpa Gupta. The exhibition presents an overview of her oeuvre, 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 prize of the Possehl Foundation. It includes prize money of 25,000 euros and an exhibition in Lübeck. The award is presented in the categories of sculpture, installation, new media, performance and action art. Shilpa Gupta is the third winner of the Possehl Prize for International Art after Doris Salcedo and Matt Mullican.
Shilpa Gupta © Felix König
Exploring borders with the means of art
In her artistic work, Shilpa Gupta deals with important issues in today's society such as belonging, security, censorship, religion, freedom of expression and human rights. The issue of borders is particularly central. For over two decades, Shilpa Gupta's artistic work has dealt with the effects of borders and the drawing of borders by state apparatuses on societies, which, especially in border regions, define themselves by far more than national affiliation. Her works bear witness to a deep examination of the issues of social, geographical and psychological border demarcations and their influence on public life, which are particularly relevant in times of increasing legal pressure in Germany, Europe and the world.
With her artistic work, she addresses the ever-growing national public sphere in India, which is characterized by gender and class barriers, religious differences, the continuing power of repressive state apparatuses and deceptive notions of public consensus. Language and its inherent power is a focal point in her artistic work. Her oeuvre encompasses various new media, such as robotic works, photographic images, interactive sound videos, motorized mechanisms, found objects, computer-aided installations and public performances. This makes Shilpa Gupta one of the most important media artists of the present day, influencing several generations of artists to this day. Shilpa Gupta's oeuvre makes 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 take a fresh look at issues of global relevance through the lens of local art. Due to its geographical location in Germany and its transnational relations, some of which go back a long way in history, Lübeck still forms an important hub to its neighbors in the north, east and worldwide. As a city located in the former border zone, Lübeck is characterized in a special way by the experience of the border. What experiences do people have in these sensitive border areas? How do they still affect the neighboring areas today, but also the identity and sense of belonging of the people living there?
The exhibition allows themes of global relevance to be linked 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 break up Eurocentric narratives at certain points.
September 27, 2025 to March 1, 2026
https://kunsthalle-st-annen.de
