123 applicants from 43 nations followed the motto of this year's scholarship: “Breaking new grounds” and handed in their applications during a two months period. First the applications were examined according to formal criteria. In a second step members of the Stellwerk Zollverein e.V. organisation made a preselection. Hereby the focus was set clearly on the project description and not on artistic professionalism or the aesthetics/contents of the presented art work: Did the applicants take up and transpose the scholarship’s topics? Can the presented art project be realised?
36 applications were suggested to the main jury. Another 53 applications also met the scholarship criteria and were presented to the main jury as well. 34 applications were invalid due to formal and thematic aspects.
As scheduled, the main jury meeting took place on June 17th, 2004. The jury consisted of the following members:
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Dirk Otto, board of the scholarship organisation
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Ulrich Ströher, art collector from Darmstadt and chairman of the board of the Stiftung Zollverein
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Gerd Schütte, galery owner from Essen
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Carl Emanuel Wolf, artist and lecturer at the HfBK Dresden (College of Fine Arts Dresden)
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Joachim Petsch, art historican at the Ruhr-University Bochum
After a more than seven hours lasting meeting, the winner of this year's studio scholarship was unanimously selected: Laura Ribero.