Venice Biennale, Australia wins the Golden Lion. All the awardees

This morning, April 20, at Ca’ Giustinian in Venice, the Jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, composed of Julia Bryan-Wilson (USA), president of the jury, Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Chika Okeke-Agulu (Nigeria), Elena Crippa (Italy) and María Inés Rodríguez (France/Colombia), awarded the official prizes. At the suggestion of the Curator of the 60th Exhibition, Adriano Pedrosa, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Italian-born Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino and Turkish artist and Paris resident Nil Yalter.

The Golden Lion for Best National Participation was awarded toAUSTRALIA for kith and kin. The exhibition was commissioned by Creative Australia, curated by Ellie Buttrose, and features works by Archie Moore. The exhibition venue is located at the Gardens. Archie Moore has created a monumental First Nation family tree, hand-crafted from chalk. On dark walls and ceiling, 65,000 years of history, both recorded and lost, take shape, inviting viewers to fill in the blanks and understand the inherent fragility of this grief-soaked archive. The installation stands out for its strong aesthetic and its evocation of a shared loss of a darkened past.

A special mention was given to National Participation of the Republic of Kosovo for The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin. The exhibition was curated by Erëmirë Krasniqi and exhibited at the Naval Historical Museum, Riva S. Biasio 2148, with a commission by Hana Halilaj of the National Gallery of Kosovo and the participation of Doruntina Kastrati. Doruntina Kastrati’s installation is inspired by feminized industrial labor and the erosion of the bodies of women employees. With references to walnut shells used in the mass production of Turkish sweets and replacement medical devices for the worn-out knees of female workers, Kastrati’s refined sculptures invite viewers to interact with them.

In contrast, the Golden Lion for Best Participant in the 60th International Art Exhibition was awarded to Mataaho Collective, founded in 2012 in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The Maori Mataaho Collective conceived a luminous structure, woven with straps, that runs through the exhibition space. Evoking textile traditions, with its form of a cradle, the installation takes on the dual role of cosmology and shelter. The suggestive play of shadows cast on the walls and floor recalls ancient techniques, while suggesting possible future uses.

The Silver Lion was awarded to the participating artist of the 60th International Art Exhibition: Karimah Ashadu, born in London, UK, in 1985, living in Hamburg, Germany, and Lagos, Nigeria. With her video Machine Boys and related brass sculpture entitled Wreath, Karimah Ashadu transforms gendered conventions regarding the gaze and what is considered worthy of commemoration. Through piercing intimacy, she captures the vulnerability of young men from the northern agricultural regions of Nigeria who have moved to Lagos and found themselves working as illegal motorcycle cab drivers. The video is edited to highlight and critique the performances of masculinity in the exhibition, revealing the marginal condition of mototaxi drivers through the artist’s attention to the metal surfaces of the machines, human skin, and cloth.

The Jury also chose to award two special mentions to the following participants: Samia Halaby, born in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1936. She currently resides in New York, USA, and La Chola Poblete, born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1989. She currently resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Samia Halaby, artist, educator and activist, was selected by the jury for special mention. Her commitment to addressing the politics of abstraction has merged with an ongoing sensitivity to the plight of the Palestinian people. Her modernist painting, titled Black is Beautiful, beautifully displayed in the ’Historic Core’ of "Foreigners Everywhere," not only expresses the sovereignty of the imagination, but also the importance of global solidarities. Chola Poblete, on the other hand, humorously engages in a critical analysis of colonial narratives from a trans-indigenous perspective. Her eclectic art resists the tendency to exoticize indigenous women but emphasizes the power of their sexuality. With a queer, cross-disciplinary approach, she explores Western religious iconography and indigenous spiritual practices, reversing power dynamics through works that invoke the ancestral knowledge of the American South.

Image: the Australia Pavilion. Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Venice Biennale, Australia wins the Golden Lion. All the awardees

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