Member of Honour Waltraut Tänzler wins the Special Prize of the
Vevey International Photography Award, Switzerland 

The Berlin artist Waltraut Tänzler, Member of Honour of the Association for Interactive Democracy since 2014, has won the Special Prize of the Vevey International Photography Award with her project “EYES ON BORDERs”. [1] The project will be presented on the Festival Images in Vevey, Switzerland, from 10. September 2016 to 2. Oktober 2016. [2]

Axel Kistner, Board Member of the Association for Interactive Democracy says: “We are glad, that Waltraut Tänzler has won this special prize of the Jury. For sure Waltraut Tänzler is an outstanding artist, who recently dealt with the developments of the internet and social media and this way could personally accenture the public discourse about the use of new technologies.”

The project “EYES ON BORDERs” is based on screenshots of an internet platform of the police in Texas that showed pictures of webcams along the border to Mexico in real time. People who were interested could sign up to the platform to report suspects as virtual border patrol to the police. Between 2009 and 2011 the artist regularly logged into the website herself, to watch the border between USA and Mexico in Texas.

Waltraut Tänzler, born 1953 in Bremen, studied art teaching and sculpture at the University of Fine Arts, Braunschweig, and has lived and worked in Berlin since 2003. Her works are shown worldwide on exhibitions, art fairs, festivals, biennals and contests. 2013 Waltraut Tänzlers was presented with her work at “Interruption”, the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenja, curated by Deborah Cullen, Columbia University, New York. 2015 she was present at “Data Rush”, Noorderlicht International Photofestival 2015, Groningen, The Netherlands.

[1] Jury Special Price

[2] Images Vevey