Cana Bilir-Meier
Winner 2018
Cana Bilir-Meier, born 1986 in Munich, studied Art Education and Art and Digital Media at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 2016 she received the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize. Her works have been presented at such venues as Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), Kunsthalle Wien, and Diagonale – Festival for Austrian Film.
Cana Bilir-Meier’s film and sound works centre on materials from her family’s archive. Starting with episodes from her own family history, the artist, a grandchild of Turkish immigrants, approaches universal narratives and collective memories. Of central importance to the work is the process of sifting through materials like image and sound recordings, letters, newspaper articles, and documents. Revealing how such materials are evaluated and contextualized gives rise to a distinct artistic language and perspective.
