Sasha Waltz receives the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis 2025
On Thursday, 22 May 2025, choreographer, dancer and director Sasha Waltz was honoured with the 2025 Helmut Schmidt Future Prize alongside Danish-Icelandic visual artist, designer and public space architect Olafur Eliasson. Both were recognised for their cultural innovations, through which they promote the protection of democracy and nature as well as liberal society. This is the first time that two personalities from the arts and culture have been awarded the prize. The award ceremony took place at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg.
On 22 May 2025, the Helmut Schmidt Future Prize was awarded to the two winners by the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation and THE NEW INSTITUTE at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. Since 2022, the award has recognised outstanding innovative achievements in the fields of democracy, society and technology. The jury praised the winner as follows:
The award ceremony at Hamburg's Thalia Theatre was framed by an excerpt from »In C« by Sasha Waltz & Guests, a conversation between journalist and jury chairman Uwe Jean Heuser, installation artist Ólafur Elíasson and Jochen Sandig, and the light installation »Your Pluralistic Coming Together« by Elíasson, with which dancers from the company improvised and interacted. The laudatory speech was held by Hamburg's Senator for Culture and Media, Carsten Brosda. The evening focused on the need to find new, future-oriented approaches to our democratic thinking and action, and emphasised the important role that art and culture play in this: they are capable of creating new spaces of possibility in which other perspectives and solutions can be developed and experienced. After a get-together on stage, the evening came to a close with an after-show party for all guests under the roof of the Thalia Theatre.
