See who are the big winners of the Venice Biennale

Archie Moore’s exhibition “Friends and Acquaintances” represented Australia’s pavilion this year and it was he who was awarded the Golden Lion for the best national entry in the 60th anniversary edition of the Venice Biennale.

Australian winners of this year’s Venice Biennale – Archie Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose

For the first time in the history of the forum, Australian artists receive the grand prize.

Moore has installed a “pool” in which different hues are reflected, which are reminders of the injustices that First Nations peoples face today.

Placed on a platform above the pool, 500 stacks of documents, mainly consisting of partially redacted inquests into the deaths of Indigenous Australians in police custody, draw parallels with the times we live in today and how these questions of the past can be perceived by society today .

View from the Australia Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (Source: Creative Australia)

Archie Moore’s project is an artistic exploration of Indigenous Australia, British heritage and colonial history as a reflective perspective.

On the walls and ceilings of the pavilion space is a genealogical chart spanning 65,000 years, reminding visitors that “reports and statistics are not just nameless statistics, they are children, siblings, cousins, parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and great-grandparents.

The convergence of the personal with the political, the kin and the kin, also highlights similar injustices around the world.

View from the Australia Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (Source: Creative Australia)

This year’s Australian Pavilion is curated by Ellie Buttrows and created by Creative Australia and is located in the Giardini in Venice.

After receiving the Golden Lion award, artist Archie Moore said:

“As the water flows through the canals of Venice to the lagoon, then to the Adriatic Sea, then travels to the oceans and to the rest of the world – wrapping around the continent of Australia, it connects us all here on Earth. Aboriginal root systems include all living things on Earth. We are all one and share the responsibility to care for all living beings now and in the future.I am very grateful for this recognition, it makes me feel rewarded for the hard work.I am grateful to everyone who has always been a part of my journey – from my loved ones and relatives to Creative Australia and the team.”

View from the Australia Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (Source: Creative Australia)

Ellie Buttrose, curator of Friends and Acquaintances, added:

“Archie Moore has a profound effect on those who listen first. Friends and Acquaintances envelops us all in the idea of ​​family. Being related also means having responsibilities, having obligations to each other and to all living things. This award is a celebration of Archie’s art and a pleasure to watch his work.”

The jury of the 60th Venice Biennale includes Julia Bryan-Wilson (USA) – Jury President, Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Chika Okeke-Agulu (Nigeria), Elena Cripa (Italy) and Maria Ines Rodríguez (France/Colombia).

The Kosovo Pavilion team receives its award at the 60th edition of the Venice Art Biennale (Photo: Republic of Kosovo Pavilion)

The special distinction was awarded to the national participation of the Republic of Kosovo with the exhibition “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” / “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” by Doruntina Kastrati, located in the Museo Storico Navale.

The exhibition “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” / “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” by Doruntina Kastrati (Photo: Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo)

The sculptural installation of Kosovo The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin deals with feminized labor and inequality in the workplace.

Researching the joint deindustrialization of the economy and deregulation of the labor market, Doruntina Kastrati confronts the (im)material forms of “precarious employment” in light industry after the 1999 Kosovo war.

The opening of the Republic of Kosovo Pavilion in Venice (Source: Republic of Kosovo Pavilion)

“Gendered labor in industries such as food production has made women economically vulnerable and pushed them toward political marginalization,” the project team said.

Kastrati’s project deals with the experiences of twelve women workers in a Turkish delight factory in Prizren, the second largest city in Kosovo and the artist’s hometown.

The opening of the Republic of Kosovo Pavilion in Venice (Source: Republic of Kosovo Pavilion)

Partly because plant workers work straight, nearly a third of them subsequently undergo knee replacement surgery. The metal objects implanted in their knees are traces of long hours of work for low pay.

The exhibition “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” / “The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin” by Doruntina Kastrati (Photo: Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo)

The Golden Lion for the best participant in the international exhibition of the Biennale went to the New Zealand artistic collective Mataaho Collective.

It is a collective of Maori women who have created “a luminous woven structure of straps that poetically criss-cross the gallery space”. Drawing on matrilineal traditions of womb-like cradle textiles, “the installation is both a cosmology and a refuge.”

Silver lion took Karima Ashadu as a promising young participant in the international exhibition. She was born in London but is based in Hamburg and Lagos, Nigeria.

The jury decided to award two special prizes to artists Samia Halabi (Jerusalem, Palestine, 1936, living in New York, USA) and La Cholla Poblete (born in Mendoza, Argentina in 1989, living in Buenos Aires).

Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino, who was born in Italy, and Turkish artist Nil Yalter received the Biennale’s honorary awards this year (Source: labiennale.org)

The award ceremony of the 60th International Art Biennale took place on April 20, 2024 at Ca’ Giustinian. On the recommendation of the curator of the 60th exhibition, Adriano Pedrosa, the two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement were awarded to Brazilian artist of Italian origin Anna Maria Maiolino and Paris-based Turkish artist Nil Yalter.