H.-A. Bockmeyer Travel Scholarship 2024

The H.-A. Bockmeyer Foundation supports an annual artistic travel project at the Bremen University of the Arts (HfK) with a grant of 3,000 euros. Students from the fields of Fine Arts, Integrated Design and Digital Media can apply for this.

Once again this year, there were a large number of submissions. Shawn Pak Hin Tang from the Digital Media course was selected as the winner. The jury consisted of: Dr. Klaus Martin (Chairman of the Bockmeyer Foundation), Annette Hans (GAK), Dr. Petra Klusmeyer (HfK Bremen) and Prof. Alexander Sahoo (HfK Bremen).

Shawn Pak Hin Tang convinced the jury with his travel project, which will take him to Indonesia and thematically deals with the effects of climate change. The focus is on the endangered coral reef off the island of Gili Trawangan. An initiative of the Gili Eco Trust is currently attempting to preserve the reef by creating artificial structures ("Biorock"). Shawn Pak Hin Tang's work will be specifically about personally helping with this on the one hand, but also taking a critical artistic look at the causes of the damage and the attempts to repair it on the other. The project thus follows on from previous themes in Shawn Pak Hin Tang's student works at the HfK Bremen, in which he has always linked his artistic practice with technology criticism and sustainability issues.

The jury statement says: "This not only addresses the issue of threatened ecological structures such as coral reefs, but also the acute social question of how to react to local consequences caused by global phenomena such as climate change. The project also enables an examination of the relationship between nature and technology as well as the question of human feelings of motivation and resignation in a situation in which attempts to restore lost natural conditions seem almost hopeless in view of the overwhelming global problem. Shawn Pak Hin Tang thus addresses a variety of relevant issues of our time, whose future solutions and potential lines of conflict are currently still difficult to assess. The concretely described planning and the plausible approach of his project promise an artistically extremely interesting realization of the chosen theme."