Paul Wiersbinski – 2024 World Heritage Scholarship holder

During this year's application period, 302 applications were received from a total of 58 different countries. These applications related to many interesting and exciting projects that have in various creative and exploratory ways connected the Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland together with other World Heritage sites around the world.

The 2024 World Heritage Scholarship is awarded to Paul Wiersbinski, Germany, for his project entitled "The Perfect House". The project connects together the World Heritage sites Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland and the German Berlin Modernism Housing Estates by interweaving urban Berlin with rural Hälsingland. The project was inspired by the idea of navigating through a perfect house and making an aesthetic connection to the historical memory.

- Welcoming Paul Wiersbinski to Hälsingland marks a step towards opening new creative doors between cultural world heritage sites. His project ”The perfect house” will unite two distinct world heritage sites, the Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland and Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, in a way that enriches both our regional and the global cultural heritage. It is a honour for us to host an artist who, with his artistic playfulness, will create an exciting interweaving of history and aesthetics, says Frida Stål (M), chair of the culture and skills committee.

The Jury's motivation, in brief:

Through his creative project entitled "The Perfect House", Paul Wiersbinski connects together the World Heritage sites Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland and the German Berlin Modernism Housing Estates by interweaving urban Berlin with rural Hälsingland. The project was inspired by the idea of navigating through a perfect house and making an aesthetic connection to the imaginary dimension of historical memory through the unique aesthetics of the houses and farmsteads as they were at the time for which they were constructed.

Paul Wiersbinski is a German artist living and working in Berlin. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. With its artistic collage technique, the work of Paul Wiersbinski finds itself at the boundary between art and science, and is frequently seasoned with playfulness and improvisation.

Paul Wiersbinski is awarded the 2024 World Heritage Residence Scholarship for reflecting in his "The Perfect House" project the same kind of diversity as evidenced by the cultural variety and integration of historical, architectural and cultural elements in the World Heritage sites.

The rationale in its entirety can be found on the Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland World Heritage webpage

- The scholarship is international and supported by UNESCO, which helps disseminate information. It has been incredibly interesting to engage with all the ideas and thoughts about how the Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland can be compared with and enrich other World Heritage sites, especially during the troubled times we are living in", says Anna-Karin Ferm, World Heritage & Cultural Developer, Region Gävleborg. 

As recipient of the World Heritage Scholarship, Paul Wiersbinski received 50,000 SEK to realise his project, as well as the opportunity to stay for a month at one of the decorated farmhouses.