2001 Grant Saarstip!

Artistic Projects from the Saar in Berlin
Saarbrücker Zeitung, February 2001

What three artists with scholarships from the Saarland Land Mission in Berlin plan to do in the capital
How do three artists of the Saarland with a lot of time and enough money spend a whole year in Berlin? With projects, of course - like the three Saarland scholarship holders, who are each receiving 50,000 DM to spend one whole year in the capital. The scholarship is an initiative of State Secretary Monika Beck, sponsored by the Saarland-Sporttoto-GmbH and the Saar LB-Girozentrale. Just now the three winners, performance and video Artist Walli Höfinger, author Martin Bettinger and screenwriter Daniel Texter, presented their plans for Berlin to the press.
Höfinger (born in 1966) wants to explore the interconnections between the body and the new media and show the results of her work in the form of 4 performances.
Bettinger (born in 1957) expects to react to the place in terms of language; he wants to create poems, short stories and textual snapshots about the city. And Daniel Texter (born in 1973) wants to finish a screenplay based on a story by the Munich author Sky Nonhoff. His proposal previously won the award of the Minister President of the Saarland at the Saar-Lor-Lux Film and Video Festival.
In addition, Monika Beck announced that the Federal Government of the Saarland wants to help the artists make important contacts. For example Michel Friedmann, the cultural adviser of the land government could help Daniel Texter meet the film producer Regina Ziegler and Volker Schlöndorff; Höfinger could be introduced to the Academie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) and the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (New Berlin Art Union), while Bettinger could come into contact with the Literarisches Colloquium.
So the three have a splendid program of events to look forward to, even if Saarlanders often fare poorly in the “Reich”, as Martin Bettinger remarked ironically ”As a Saarlander, as soon as you cross the border you can’t help but fail. That is proven by the great political role models such as Lafontaine and Klimmt. The worst failure was Erich Honnecker in Berin. In this sense failure wouldn‘t be too bad.” We wish them good luck anyway.

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