Sasha Kurmaz is one of the four finalists for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for his series The Red Horse, currently exhibited in the gallery's nave in the major exhibition Liturgie des Jours.
The 2027 shortlisted projects feature photography, film and sound, sculptural installations, archival photographs and materials, and handmade collage. The compelling shortlist examines how images shape our understanding of bodies, war, labour and power. Together, the shortlisted artists investigate desire and memory; the human costs of the digital economy; surviving in times of conflict; and the politics of looking. The four artists have made a significant contribution to photography in Europe through projects shown or published within the past 12 months.
The exhibition of the shortlisted projects will be on view at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, from 10 March to 6 June 2027. It will then be presented at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn/Frankfurt from 19 June to 26 September 2027.
Kurmaz began the project following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This diaristic journey into war tells the deeply personal story of his life alongside the lives of those around him who struggle to survive under constant threat. The 800-page visual diary consists of handmade collages that offer a first-hand account of life in Ukraine, a country continually reshaped by the destructive force of war. Kurmaz combines documentary photographs, notes, drawings, newspaper clippings and found objects to capture both his own experiences and those of the people around him. Alongside his thoughts, fears and pain, the accumulation of these fragile collages raises questions about how prolonged states of emergency and war affect individuals, society, democracies and public spaces. “Red Horse” is a powerful reflection on how war transforms our lives and collective memory, and on what it means to create art in times of armed conflict.
