HGB members Anna Perepechai and Mahshid Mahboubifar are among the winners of "MdbK [jetzt]. Positions of Young Art from Central Germany", which the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig is awarding for the first time in 2026. In addition to Anna Perepechai and Mahshid Mahboubifar, the jury recently selected Franzi Goralski and Theresa Rothe from over 160 submissions. The award ceremony and exhibition opening of the award-winning positions is planned for May 2026.
Mahshid Mahboubifar (*1991 Jahrom) is an artist and filmmaker from Iran. In her work with moving and still images, she reflects on her connection to her immediate surroundings, her research - often through interviews - and her subjective perception. By reconstructing archive material, she explores how narratives are constructed and preserved. Mahboubifar graduated in Expanded Cinema from the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig in 2025. She lives and works in Leipzig and Berlin.
Anna Perepechai (*1989 Poltava) grew up in the Chernihiv region (Ukraine). She studied journalism in Kyiv, visual communication in Weimar, photography in Montreal and completed her diploma in photography and moving image at the HGB Leipzig in 2025. Her work combines documentary and experimental approaches and focuses on socio-political transformations, collective memory and traumatic experiences, especially in former Sovietised societies. Anna Perepechai lives and works in Leipzig.
In autumn 2024, the MdbK and the Marion Ermer Foundation announced the Marion Ermer Prize 2025. Parallel to the application process, the Marion Ermer Foundation unexpectedly announced its dissolution and declared that the art prize, which had been awarded since 2001, could no longer be realised. The MdbK has decided to continue the competition and the prize, now under the title MdbK [now]. Positions of Young Art from Central Germany.
The competition was aimed at artists who have not yet reached the age of 35 and reside in the federal states on the territory of the former GDR but not in Berlin. In addition, they had to have completed or be in the final stages of their art studies.
Members of the jury were: Birgit Bosold (curator and member of the board of the Schwules Museum in Berlin), Jenny Graser (curator for 20th and 21st century painting, sculpture and graphic art at the Museum der bildenden Künste in Berlin), Jenny H. (curator for 20th and 21st century painting, sculpture and graphic art at the Museum der bildenden Künste in Berlin) and Jenny H. (curator for 20th and 21st century art at the Museum der bildenden Künste in Berlin). Century at the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig), Katrin Köppert (Junior Professor of Art History and Popular Cultures at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig), Florence Thurmes (General Director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz), Katrin Klietsch (curator responsible for the project).