Awarding of the Pauli Prize 2026 to Annette Kelm

Awarding of the Pauli Prize 2026 to Annette Kelm

The jury of the Pauli Prize awards the prize, endowed with 30,000 euros, to Annette Kelm in 2026 (nominated by the Circle of Patrons for the Pauli Prize). The public award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 6 p.m. in the Kunsthalle Bremen. The works of the prize winner and the other seven nominated artists can be seen in the Kunsthalle until October 4, 2026.

Annette Kelm, born in Stuttgart in 1975, shows her photo series "Die Bücher" (The Books) from 2019–2021 in the exhibition for the Pauli Prize, in which she portrays selected copies of books banned as "un-German" during National Socialism and partly publicly burned in 1933. They stand as a symbol for the cultural diversity of their time. The works and ideas of these authors and designers of modernity were to be erased from collective memory. In "Die Bücher," Kelm's interest in object photography is evident, as is her conceptual approach. Annette Kelm lives and works in Berlin.

The jury's reasoning:
"The work 'Die Bücher' by Annette Kelm convinces with its directness and conceptual stringency. It consists of a total of 102 photographs, each showing the cover of a book banned and burned by the National Socialists (a selection of 47 is shown in the exhibition for the Pauli Prize).