The committee of the 2008 blau orange art prize, promoted by the German bank alliance Deutsche Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, has announced the five artists selected: the female group FORT (Jenny Kropp, Anna Jandt, Alberta Niemann), who work with installation; the multi-media artist Kitty Kraus; Adrian Lohmueller, whose work deals especially with performative processes; Sophie Oldenbourg, who works predominantly with video, and the installation artist Monika Stricker. The winner, to be announced on 1 July 2008, will receive a 20,000-euro grant, as well as the chance to show their work in a solo exhibition curated by Bettina Klein at the Kunstverein Heilbronn in November.
The jury, led by the curator Veit Loers, is composed of six representatives from art associations (Kunstvereine): Marius Babias — Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n. b. k., Justin Hoffmann — Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Matthias Loebke — Kunstverein Heilbronn, Kathleen Rahn — Kunstverein Nuremberg, Christina Vegh — Bonner Kunstverein, and Janneke de Vries — Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen.
The blau orange art prize of the German cooperative banks is an annual award which has been conceived to support and promote young German artists. The last artist to win the awarded was Danh Vo.