The DA! Art Award is Düsseldorf’s secular art prize and has been awarded every two years since 2018 under a changing theme. In 2024, it was held under the motto “Check Your Dogma!” and called on artists to critically engage with religion, esotericism, irrationalism, and ideological rigidities. The nominated works were exhibited from September 7 to 28, 2024, at the Düsseldorf City Museum.
I was delighted to have been nominated for the DA! Art Award 2024 with Children’s Bible and to participate in the exhibition.
This text comes from the Old Testament. Lot’s daughters are to be sacrificed in order to prevent the male guests from being raped. Afterwards, the city and all its inhabitants are destroyed by God. Lot is portrayed as the only righteous man in the city; only he and his family escape. In children’s church and religious education classes, we encountered this punishing God. Regardless of how seriously we took these stories, we were gradually desensitized to the inhumane punishments God had in store for the sinful people. Were we thereby presented with an image of humanity that assumes human beings are inherently bad and must either be punished or saved?