ABSA L'Atelier Merit Award

The ABSA L’Atelier is South Africa’s most prestigious art competition and is held annually for artists between ages 21 to 35. This award not only ensures South Africa’s emerging artists of recognition, but also affords them the opportunity to develop their talents abroad. A look through the list of previous winners will testify to this.
 Four prizes will be made available: First prize, two merit award prizes and the Gerard Sekoto Award for the most promising artist. 
One of the merit awards is done in cooperation with the Sylt Foundation. The merit winner will sopend a two-month residency on the island of Sylt in Northern Germany.

Congratulations to our Sylt Foundation Fellow Kai Lossgott for winning the 2015 Barclays L'Atelier Award 2015. We could think of none more deserving it!

Kai Lossgott

Kai Lossgott (35) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher from Johannesburg. His preferred mediums are film, photography, and found objects.

Our limited grasp of concepts outside of a human moment or even lifespan is an existential problem and, therefore, eludes modern science. In seeking further perception of “the tiniest thing” visible to the naked eye, the artist speculates on the scientific pursuit of particles within the realm of the everyday. Invested with the pragmatism, the microtopias in our backyards and pavements become a site for personal exploration. Where we place ourselves, or what position we inhabit in relation to what is bigger and smaller (the problem of scale or space), what is older or younger (the problem of time), and what is seemingly useful or useless (the problem of taxonomy) is fundamentally a problem of perception or aesthetics.

Barclays L'Atelier

Website Kai Lossgott