Biennale Official Awards
The Jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia awarded the Golden Lion, the prize for the Best National Participation to Australia.
Archie Moore, an Indigenous Australian artist, has created the “kith and kin” installation including a monumental family tree. He has drawn a family tree in chalk on the walls and ceiling. The web of names encompasses 3,484 people and stretches back 65,000 years. In the centre of the room is a huge table covered with stacks of government documents relating to the deaths of Indigenous Australians in police custody.
A special mention in the National Participation has been awarded to the Republic of Kosovo, for The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin sculptural installation. The piece draws on the experiences of 12 women who work in a Turkish delight factory in her hometown of Prizren and addresses feminised industrial labour and workplace inequality.
Saturday’s other major award, the Golden Lion for Best Participant in the Biennale’s main exhibition (the International Exhibition), went to Mataaho Collective, a group of 4 Maori women from New Zealand, for an installation that evokes a traditional mat used during Maori ceremonies, including childbirth. The collective created a “womb-like cradle” that casts “a dazzling pattern of shadows” across the gallery floor.
The jury awarded the Silver Lion for the promising young artist to Karimah Ashadu, a British Nigerian based in Hamburg, Germany, for “Machine Boys,” which depicts illegal taxi drivers in Lagos, Nigeria.
Two special mentions were announced to Samia Halaby, Palestinian-American visual artist and activist, whose 1969 abstract painting entitled Black is Beautiful, appeared in the Nucleo Storico part of the exhibition; and La Chola Poblete, Argentinian artist, whose large-scale watercolours deal with histories of trans and Indigenous perspectives.
This year's jury comprised Julia Bryan-Wilson (USA), the President of the Jury, Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Chika Okeke-Agulu (Nigeria), Elena Crippa (Italy), and María Inés Rodríguez (France/Colombia).
It is worth mentioning again that two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement went to Italian-born Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino and to the Paris-based Turkish artist Nil Yalter.
La Biennale di Venezia will run until 24 November 2024.