On April 23, local time, the award ceremony of the 59th Venice Biennale was held at the Ca' Giustinian, the headquarters of the Venice Biennale. The Uganda Pavilion and the French Pavilion, which participated for the first time this year, jointly won the "Specially Nominated National Pavilion Award"; the British Pavilion won the "Golden Lion Award for Best National Pavilion", the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Chilean artist Cecilia Vicu a and German artist Katharina Fritsch, and the theme exhibition "Golden Lion for Best International Exhibition" was awarded to African-American artist Simone Leigh, All are female artists, and the "Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist" was won by Ali Cherri, an artist from Lebanon.
The 59th Venice Biennale, themed "Milk of Dreams", presented nearly 1,500 works by 213 artists from 58 countries around the world, with the participation of 79 national pavilions. Among them, the Republic of Cameroon, Namibia, Nepal, the Sultanate of Oman and Uganda participated in the exhibition for the first time. Cecilia Alemani, chief curator, said at the opening ceremony, "We are living at an extraordinary moment in history, and we are all incomparably aware of how we have worked so hard to achieve this special miracle today at a time when the international character and the necessary responsibility of the Biennale have been given". Cecilia Alemani is currently the director and chief curator of High Line Art in New York, and she is also the third female independent chief curator in the history of the Venice Biennale (there have been male and female pairs in history).
The scene of the Golden Lion Awards at the 59th Venice Biennale, Ca' Giustinian, headquarters of the Venice Biennale, 2022
The scene of the Golden Lion Awards at the 59th Venice Biennale, Ca' Giustinian, headquarters of the Venice Biennale, 2022
On April 23, 2022 local time, the award ceremony of the 59th Venice Biennale was officially held at the Headquarters of the Venice Biennale, Ca' Giustinian.
The 59th Venice Biennale "Golden Lion Award" award ceremony. Left: Cecilia Alemani, chief curator of the 59th Venice International Art Biennale, right: Roberto Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, announcing the winners, Ca' Giustinian, headquarters of the Venice Biennale, 2022
The International Jury of the 59th Venice Biennale was chaired by Jury Presidents Adrienne Edwards (USA), Lorenzo Giusti (Italy), Julieta González (Mexico), Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (Cameroon) and Susanne Pfeffer (Germany, Germany, Germany) Susanne Pfeffer) composed.
The Uganda Pavilion and the French Pavilion, which participated for the first time this year, jointly won the "Special Nomination National Pavilion Award", and the British Pavilion finally won the "Golden Lion Award for Best National Pavilion". The theme exhibition "Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artists" was won by Ali Cherri, an artist from Lebanon. The Board of Directors of the Venice Biennale, chaired by Roberto Cicutto, on the recommendation of curator Cecilia Alemani, awarded this year's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to two female artists, Katharina Fritsch from Germany, and Cecilia Vicu a.
At the 59th Venice Biennale "Golden Lion Award" award, Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award Winners: German artist Katharina Fritsch, Ca' Giustinian, headquarters of the Venice Biennale, 2022
At the 59th Venice Biennale Golden Lion Awards, Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award Winners: Chilean Artist Cecilia Vicu a, Ca' Giustinian, Headquarters of the Venice Biennale, 2022
Golden Lion Best National Award for Exhibiting: UK Pavilion
The "Golden Lion for Best National Participation" was won by the UK Pavilion, which is curated by Emma Ridgway and presents the work of artist Sonia Boyce under the theme "Sonia Boyce: Feel Her Way". This is the first solo exhibition of an African-American female artist at the British National Pavilion.
Artist Sonia Boyce at the UK Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale
Boyce, 60, has been working with black art groups across disciplines since the early 1980s, allowing her to work not just as an artist who participates in regular international exhibitions, but as a practitioner of authentic social involvement. The Way She Feels Presents a "Collective Attempt to Fight Amnesia" through a video installation in six spaces filled with colourful wallpaper. In the video work, Sonia Boyce invites five award-winning, cross-era black female musicians to improvise and play with their voices, and the pavilion's space is filled with sometimes harmonious and sometimes conflicting sounds.
The work of Sonia Boyce explores the intimate social encounters of interpersonal relationships. Using art forms such as painting, photography, video, and installation, she creates her work by capturing images and sounds from social events. The back wall of the pavilion is made up of tiles and wallpaper, and the golden geometry and colorful images surround the central display screen, accentuating the singing voices of black British singers, embodying a sense of freedom, power and vulnerability. The video shows the artists meeting for the first time to improvise in an a cappella chorus, reflecting the potential of collaboration as a path to innovation.
Works by Sonia Boyce, inside the UK Pavilion
Sonia Boyce offers another suggestion for interpreting history through sound waves. In working with other black women, she unravels a large number of silent stories. Boyce came up with a very modern language associated with fragmented forms that visitors could piece together as they experienced the pavilion. Working together is more important than the pursuit of perfect harmony.
Golden Lion Best National Award for Exhibiting: UK Pavilion
Emma Ridgway, Curator of the Uk Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
Golden Lion Special Nomination For National Pavilion Award: France Pavilion & Uganda Pavilion
The French Pavilion, one of the two "Specially Nominated National Pavilion Awards", presented by artist Zineb Sedira, presents a joint exhibition by Yasmina Reggad, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, under the theme of "Dreams have no titles".
The French Pavilion acknowledges and thanks the long-standing exchange of ideas and solidarity, especially the building of communities among the diaspora. The exhibition also reviews the complex history of cinema outside the West and the multiple histories of resistance in the artist's work.
French Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale The official website of the Venice Biennale
From left to right: French Pavilion curators Yasmina Reggad, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath
Artist Zineb Sedira at the French Pavilion
Works by Zenab Cedilla, exhibition site at the French Pavilion
Cedira's film installations investigated the motivations for making radical films in the 1960s and 1970s, a testament to the cultural partnerships forged between the two sides of the Mediterranean in the past. Cedilla transformed the French Pavilion into a film studio, blurring the lines between fiction and reality, between individual and collective memory. The artist employs cinematic processes such as remakes and the Abyss, and has found inspiration in numerous film genres. In the background, she focused on the 1964 film Les main lires, directed by the Italian director Ennio Lorenzini; for this project, she found and restored the first Italian-Algerian collaboration. As a French artist with multiple identities, Cedilla constructs her work on a personal journey across France, Great Britain and Algeria.
As the "Uganda Pavilion" that won the "Special nomination for the National Pavilion Award" for the first time, the Venice Biennale recognizes their vision, ambition and commitment to art and the struggle for the country. Among them, participating artist Acaye Kerunen, in choosing sculptural materials like bark Rafia, illustrates that sustainability is a practice, not just a policy or concept.
Artist Akaye Kölning (right, Acaye Kerunen)
Works by artist Acaye Kerunen
Works by artist Acaye Kerunen
Golden Lion Award for Best International Exhibitor at Thematic Exhibition: Simone Leigh
The Golden Lion Award for Best International Participation in a Theme Exhibition was awarded to African-American artist Simone Leigh, who was born in Chicago in 1967 and lives and works in New York, USA.
Golden Lion For Best International Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition Winner: Artist Simone Leigh
The artist brings to the Armoury a monumental sculpture that has been rigorously studied, artistically practiced and extremely convincing, and together with Belkis Ayón provides a compelling portal to many ideas, emotions and methods that are dotted and vibrant throughout the exhibition.
Scene of the 59th Venice Biennale Simone Leigh, Qi Ruihe
Scene of the 59th Venice Biennale Simone Leigh, Qi Ruihe
Silver Lion Award: Ali Cherry
Silver Lion Award Winner of the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Born in Beirut in 1976, Lebanese artist Ali Cherri received a bachelor's degree in graphic design from the American University in Beirut in 2000 and a master's degree in performing arts from DasArts in Amsterdam in 2005. His practice spans a wide range of media, including video, sculpture and installation, and his practice focuses on documenting and presenting the heritage and environment of Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. At the same time, he is interested in topics related to archaeology, and many of his creations focus on the way history is written and the way national narratives are constructed around objects, he excavates various ruins in the colonial history of countries such as the Middle East and North Africa, and makes the art of ruins a ruin.
Ali's work, with its interdisciplinary and multi-layered presentations, brings the meditations of earth, fire and water from a constructive perspective to the mythological dimension, reflecting the diverse narrative of the theme exhibition "Milk of Dreams".
Winner of the Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Winner of the Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Winner of the Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Winner of the Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Winner of the Silver Lion Award for the Most Promising Young Artist at the 59th Venice Biennale Theme Exhibition: Artist Ali Cherri
Special Prize: Schulvinai Ashuna & Lynn Hershman Lissen
Winner of the Special Nomination Award of the 59th Venice Biennale: Shuvinai Ashoona
Artists Shuvinai Ashoona and Lynn Hershman Leeson (born in Cleveland, USA in 1941 and now living and working in San Francisco) received a special prize from this biennale.
Artist Shuvinai Ashoona is an Inuit who specializes in painting. She is known for her pen and pencil sketches detailing northern landscapes and contemporary Inuit life.
Her work reveals the cosmic origins of the indigenous Inuktuit people. The interdependent existence of species and the absence of colonial influences by human power. Acknowledging the violence of colonial corporations, Ashuna in her work raises the possibility of escaping a dead end by listening.
Works by artist Shuvinai Ashoona
Works by artist Shuvinai Ashoona
Lynn Hershman Leeson explores the cybernetic issues that run through the exhibition in an inspiring and powerful way, including the impact of technology on our daily lives that she foresaw in her early practice.
Special Prize winner of the 59th Venice Biennale: Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson
Works by artist Lynn Hershman Leeson
Works by artist Lynn Hershman Leeson
The Venice Biennale, themed "The Milk of Dreams," will continue to be on display until 27 November 2022. The exhibition covers more than 1,500 works by 213 artists from 58 countries and exhibitions presented in 79 national pavilions throughout the city of Venice – five Time Capsules interspersed with the exhibition site, the Giardini, the Arsenale and the exhibition spaces of the various national pavilions. This exhibition, produced in different crises, returns to the live art experience after two years of pandemic isolation, just as the exhibition attempts to usher in a world where people can meet again for this public event and feel first-hand how the artistic creations in front of us stimulate our imaginations and make it possible for us to transform into people other than ourselves, and in this way jointly explore the definition of human beings, the deformation of the body, the possibility of animal and non-human forms, and the technological fantasies of the post-human situation.
(This article is based on the official website of the Venice Biennale, "Art Ba Ba", Phoenix Art and other related reports)