As a singular exception, the 2013 scholarship of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for female media artists was awarded to two artists, Verena Seibt and Clea Stracke

Jury statement
Verena Seibt and Clea Stracke (both living in Cologne) work together as an artist duo from 2006-2016. Their artistic research starts with real (urban, social, architectural or institutional) spaces and – in a thoroughly humorous and ironic way – brings to light the buried truths of these spaces. Their video installation Und das Schiff fährt (And the ship sails), which they presented in 2009 for their graduation, deals with the architecture of the Coop Himmelb(l)au art academy building as well as with teaching and the “essence of an artist”. In the video, the alienation technique of the film medium transforms the building of the Munich Art Academy into a ship on the high seas at the mercy of the waves: “The real front is reinterpreted as a fictional backdrop – and in this metaphor of the ship sailing on the high seas, it refers to the highly real internal structures of the academy,” point out the artists. Their proposed project Because I don’t love you any more will examine various separation processes at the recycling yard. The video intends to change the view of an everyday place by dramatically exaggerating tragic moments of separation.

Verena Seibt (*1980 in Dachau) und Clea Stracke (*1982 in Berlin-Tempelhof) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 2001 – 2008 and worked together as an artist duo until 2016. In their subtle manoeuvres, the two create imaginary spaces by groping, wondering, dissecting their way into real places, balancing their finds on the fine line between fiction and reality. Film and installation are the artists’ central media for creating space-consuming scenarios.

Information about the artists on their website
further information here and here