2026-05-04 | Rehema Chachage: 2026 HGAA prize winner

We congratulate our fellow Rehema Chachage, who was selected by the 2026 HGAA jury as the overall prize winner.

Rehema’s work resonated deeply with the jury for its grounded yet expansive engagement with ancestral knowledge, ontology, and collective presence. Her practice affirms the urgency of situating artistic production within lived community contexts, while resisting the imposition of singular authorship or the burden of representation. In Rehema’s work, there is a careful and ethical navigation of visibility—one that honours lineage and shared knowledge without collapsing it into fixed narratives.

Notably, the jury understands Rehema’s practice not as a finite articulation, but as an ongoing process of return and renewal. Her performances, both intimate and public, enact a continuous dialogue between self and community, past and present. In this way, her work exists in motion—circulating between spaces, re-rooting itself, and re-emerging with each iteration. Rehema embodies a practice that is at once deeply personal and collectively held, signalling an ever-evolving artistic language grounded in care, reciprocity, and transformation.

The Henrike Grohs Art Award, in honour of its namesake, promotes the principles and values of international cultural exchange as understood by the Goethe-Institut and stands as a beacon for the recognition and support of outstanding artistic talent.

More information here