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Der Greif Issue 19, guest-edited by renowned visual activist Zanele Muholi and supported by the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, is curated under the theme “I Am Because of You, Mother Earth” – an invitation to explore the body as a landscape and the environment as everything that lives. Featuring photographers, visual artists, writers, and poets selected from a global open call, the issue releases in November 2026 with a full public program tour and launch events across Europe.

Resulting from a global open call, Issue 19 stems from Zanele Muholi nudge to explore what environment means when we stop seeing it as something outside of ourselves. What is home when it is not a building, but a necessity, something constitutional, something elemental? When it is the people surrounding you? What does it mean to recognize that your existence is made possible by others, by land, by history, by struggle, by love? This issue break brackets, between ages, disciplines, the global South and the global North. It goes back to Der Greif’s first issues where poetry and images mingled in juxtapositions and dialogues, breaks and continuations.

Contributing Artists: Abeer Muadhah, Akis Detsis, Alexx Duvall, Alvin Kathembe, Anamaria Teodora Apostolescu, Anastasiia Leliuk, Anastasiia Vodchenko, Artur Leão, Aun Raza, Barbara Khaliyesa Minishi, Bennet Böckstiegel, Bienyl Huelgas, Brett Coleman, Bruno Ribeiro, Carl Andile Holman, Carlos Carvalho, Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas, Caroline Pahl, Chia Yun Wu, Corrado Mantinieri, Diana Kondratenko, Duda Carvalho, Emma Puig de la Bellacasa, Mejia, Evgenia Rieger, Fabrice Dimier, Felipe Messias, Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Gloria Mwivanda, Grace Anderson, Guillermo Vidal, Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka, Hyunmin Ryu, Jialu Tang, Jess T. Dugan, Julia Margarita Hoedl, Jyoti Liggin, Kabelo Mofokeng, Laura Sanchez Pallares, Laurent Elie Badessi, Leanne Trivett S., Liège Santos, Margaret Ngigi, Maria José Rojas Guzmán, Marcus Morris, Margarita Ivanova, Maude Arsenault, Melissa Spiccia, Michelle Blancke, Miguel Sobreira, Miisha Nash, Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, Nikolas Hagele, Nina Zimolong, Nitashia Johnson, Nkechi Njaka, Olga de la Iglesia, Olesja Brandt, Ophelie Loubat, Precious Parker, Ricardo Teles, Shukri Zali, Simphiwe Fuwe Molefe, Siphesihle Lesego Motswaledi, Sonali Narang, Sonya / Jemima Rademeyer / Kola, Sophie Smith, Stas Ginzburg, Taiye Godbody, Tatenda Chidora, Toni Yammine, Ugonna Owoh, Veronika Bagrintseva, Vivienne Maricevic, Xanthe Hutchinson, Xing Chen, Yulia Skogoreva, and Zenas Ubere.

Curatorial statement by Zanele Muholi

“Everything that we are is the environment. Water is part of the environment. Blood in your system is the environment. Your body as the landscape, that is a form of the environment. When you say environment, people would think of the landscape and it ends there. But you won't think of the elements and nuances that make this whole thing whole.

I could say this issue is about the constitution. But the constitution is the environment, and the environment is the landscape. And the landscape is the voice, and the voice is the community. And the community is something else. All of these things are interconnected in one way or the other. You are the environment.

A person could photograph their face and say: Look, the environment! My eyes are the north. My mouth is the south. My ears are east and west.

I really want to push people and challenge them. People are limited, and we keep on limiting ourselves. I want us to look at the environment way beyond just the physical space. I want people to think of environment as everything that lives in it.

All these things connect. Mother Earth in all of us.

Because of environment, I am. Because of you, I am. Because of them, I am.”

Launch Tour 2026

The Winners of the Curt Wills-Stiftung Prize

We are thrilled to reveal the two artists selected to receive each the €1,000 Special Prize, supported by the Curt Wills-Stiftung, for their outstanding submissions to Issue 19: "I Am Because of You, Mother Earth."

Selected for their exceptional conceptual strength and engagement with social and environmental themes, our two prize recipients are: