About a decade ago, Deutsche Bank initiated the Artist of the Year program. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary it is now for the first time awarding three artists at the same time: Maxwell Alexandre, Conny Maier, and Zhang Xu Zhan. What all three have in common is that they came to contemporary art via unusual paths and bring very specific life experiences and cultural influences with them. Maxwell Alexandre was born in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela, where he still lives today. The paintings and installations of the artist of African descent revolve around community and violence, hip-hop and spirituality. Conny Maier lives and works in Berlin and Portugal and is one of the most important discoveries in the current German painting scene. Maier’s art reflects a world shaped by representation and materialism, in which people seem to lose control. Zhang Xu Zhan was born in 1988 into a family that has been making and trading in traditional paper figurines for over a century. His stop-motion films, staged in immersive installations, take us into the realm of nature spirits and demons. With translations of the text about the work of Maxwell Alexandre in Brazilian Portuguese, with translation of the text about the work of Conny Maier in German and with a translation of the text about the work of Zhang Xu Zhan in Chinese. Text in English, Portuguese, Chinese and German.

Opera, whose name derives from the Italian word for “work,” is a genre in constant flux. While some see it as representing outdated bourgeois culture, for many others it embodies the ultimate art form with almost revolutionary possibilities. Situated next to the State Opera, the PalaisPopulaire, in cooperation with MAXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, will present the exhibition OPERA OPERA Allegro ma non troppo in 2022. Based on a wide and significant selection of the Museum’s Collection, the show as well as the catalogue are devoted to a quintessentially Italian subject while at the same time exploring the fascination and potential of opera as a theatrical Gesamtkunstwerk - a total work of art - from the perspective of global visual arts. The artists featured deal with physical expression, masking, staging, performativity, experiences of space, and sound. Artists: Vanessa Beecroft, Monica Bonvicini, William Kentridge, Liliana Moro, Olaf Nicolai, Luigi Ontani, Susan Philipsz, Kara Walker. Text in English and German.

Memory responds to the acquisitions Deutsche Bank has made over the past decade, many of which are by artists from Africa and/or are of African descent. By focusing on personal narratives, alternative perspectives and lesser-known stories, the exhibition seeks to identify the unstable, exploit the slippages, and make clear that the struggle against balance of power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. Artists: Yto Barrada, Sammy Baloji, Mohamed Camara, Samuel Fosso, Anawana Haloba, Lubaina Himid, Lebohang Kganye, Wangechi Mutu, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Zohra Opoku, Paulo Nazareth, Jo Ractliffe, Berni Searle, Mikhael Subotzky, Dineo Sehee Bopape, Kara Walker, Alberta Whittle, Joy Cheong Wong. Text in English and German.