The ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe is pleased to announce that Léa Sisombat has been selected as the recipient of the Jürgen Claus Scholarship for a master’s thesis devoted to the work of Jürgen Claus.
The decision was made by an expert jury in close consultation with the donor, Nora Claus. The jury particularly valued the conceptual clarity and originality of Sisombat’s research proposal, as well as her strong engagement with archival sources and her interest to connect media theory, sound studies, and environmental perspectives.
In her proposed master’s thesis, Toward an Oceanic Creative Experience: Jürgen Claus’s Ecological and Mediatic Exploration of Underwater Art, Léa Sisombat will examine Claus’s pioneering underwater projects of the late 1960s and 1970s—most notably Planet Ocean. Rather than treating the ocean as a representational motif, the research foregrounds it as an active, immersive environment that co-determines artistic form, perception, and meaning. A particular focus lies on the sonic dimension of Claus’s work, which has so far received little systematic art-historical attention. The project demonstrates how Jürgen Claus’s underwater works anticipate contemporary debates on ecology, sensory perception, and the role of media in shaping environmental awareness.
Léa Sisombat is a final-year master’s student in Global History of Contemporary Art at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her academic profile combines art history with media theory, sound studies, and intensive archival research. She has gained research experience through several archival and curatorial internships, including a research stay at the ZKM.
Jürgen Claus (1935–2023) was a key figure of environmentally oriented media art from the 1960s onward. He achieved international recognition through his underwater art projects, solar sculptures, and theoretical writings that consistently explored the relationship between art, technology, and ecology. Since 2021, a substantial part of his artistic estate has been preserved in the collection and archive of the ZKM, providing an exceptional foundation for new research on his work. The ZKM warmly congratulates Léa Sisombat and looks forward to accompanying the research project and to presenting its results to the public at the ZKM.