Venice Biennale: Golden Lion to Australia and the Maori Mataaho collective

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The Golden Lion was awarded to Australia for the best National Participation at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale, this year entitled ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. The winning work “kith and kin”, by Archie Moore, is a “deep exploration of his Kamilaroi, Bigambul and British ancestry, spanning an incredible 65,000 years.” “Adorned in white chalk on the black walls of the Australian Pavilion, the genealogical map is a poignant response to the power of history of the Australian First Nation and the impact of colonisation“, we read in the jury’s reasons.

“This installation stands out for its strong aesthetic, its lyricism and its invocation of a shared loss of an occluded past. With its inventory of thousands of names, Moore also offers a glimmer of the possibility of recovery“, explain the experts.

Special mention as National Participation in the installation of Doruntina Kastrati for the Republic of Kosovo. “Small but powerfulrefers to feminized industrial work and the wear and tear of working women’s bodies.”

The prize for best artistwent to the Maori Women’s Collective Mataaho, formed by Bridget Reweti, Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson and Terri Te Tau, who with their work ‘Takapau’ have created “a luminous intertwined structure of straps that poetically traverse the gallery space. Referencing the matrilineal traditions of textiles, with the its womb-like cradle, the installation is both a cosmology and a refuge”.

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Anna Maria Maiolino and Nil Yalter

Silver Lion for a promising young participant in Nigeria’s Karimah Ashadu, with her video Machine Boys and related brass sculpture, Wreath, which “disrupts gender assumptions about the gaze and what is considered appropriate to commemorate.”

Two special mentions were given to the participants, awarded to the American-Palestinian Samia Halaby, for the painting “Black is Beautiful”, and to the Argentinian La Chola Poblete, the first queer artist awarded at the Biennial, for the “critical work on the histories of colonial representation from a trans-indigenous perspective”. Golden Lion for lifetime achievement to Anna Maria Maiolino, Brazilian artist born in Scalea, Calabria, and Nil Yalter, Turkish artist born in Egypt and resident in Paris.

Record number of visitors on the first day

On the first day of opening to the public, 8,697 visitors were registered with an increase of 5% on the first day of the record 2022 edition. In the four pre-opening days there were 26,795 accredited visitors, an increase of 19% on the pre-opening days of the 2022). There are 4,315 accredited journalists, of which 2,880 from the international press (67% of the total), the organizers announced.