The winner of this year's "Beziehungsweise HGB" prize is To Fabek. His project "ExCafé - Forum for Commoning and Community at the HGB" is an artistic-social initiative that aims to expand the social structures of the university and create new interpersonal relationships. To Fabek is studying in the class for performative arts taught by V.-Prof. Jule Flierl and Anna Zett. The starting point for the project design was the reactivation of the empty HGB café and the question of possible ways to strengthen the university community. The award-winning project sees itself as a platform for exchange, collective processes and new models of collaboration. ExCafé is intended to establish itself as a university-wide forum and is aimed at all university members and alumni in order to create a social space and new levels of togetherness. The ExCafé project aims to create new relationships by cooking and eating together, moderating open formats and bringing together previously unfamiliar stakeholder constellations.
Since 2025, the HGB Leipzig and the HGB Friends e.V. have jointly awarded the "Respectively HGB" prize to promote artistic and creative projects that are dedicated to the topic of "Studying at the HGB" and address the social level and cooperation at the academy. The prize is aimed at all HGB students and is endowed with 5,000 euros, with 1,000 euros in prize money and the rest of the money earmarked for the realisation of the project.
Members of the jury were representatives of the HGB Friends e.V., the HGB students council, the Rectorate and the Student Union. The official award ceremony took place during the opening of the tour on 12 February in the atrium of the HGB.