Leone d’oro ~ Golden Lion

Biennale Art 52nd International Art Exhibition Awards of the 52nd International Art Exhibition

Venice, October 17th, 2007

The awarding ceremony of the 52nd International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Davide Croff, has taken place at the Teatro alle Tese dell’Arsenale di Venezia; more than 300 international guests from the national participations and the collateral events, artists and professionals have attended the event. For the first time ever, the awarding ceremony has been organised a month before the closing date of the exhibition, which has been Italy’s most visited art event, with more than 232,000 visitors in about 100 opening days.

While the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement has been assigned by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia to the artist Malick Sidibé (Soloba, Mali, 1936) at the Giardini della Biennale on June 10th, on the occasion of the official opening to the public, the International Jury, proposed by the 52nd International Art Exhibition Robert Storr and formed by Manuel J. Borja-Villel (president), Iwona Blazwick, Ilaria Bonacossa, Abdellah Karroum, and José Roca has today assigned four Golden Lions and two Honourable Mentions:

Golden Lion to an art critic or an art historian for his or her contribution to contemporary art: “The award for Art Criticism is given for a body of writing characterised by an uncompromising and scholarly attitude towards Contemporary Art practice and to the history of art. The Jury also recognizes in this work a profound knowledge of art from the ‘60 and ’70, and the articulation of the historical avant-gardes in the context of art today. The Golden Lion to an art critic or art historian for his or her contribution to Contemporary Art is awarded to Benjamin Buchloh.”

Honourable Mention to a national pavilion: “The Jury has cited for Honourable Mention a Pavilion that offers an insightful and subtly humorous investigation into the notion of the pavilion and the meaning of national identity, engaging the spectator within a compelling narrative. This special citation is given to the Lithuanian Pavilion featuring the artists Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas.”

Golden Lion for the best national participation: “The Golden Lion for an outstanding national participation is being given to a Pavilion where architecture and cultural history are deployed to generate intelligent and poetic relations between content, visual language and strucural display. The Jury also considers important the artist’s approach to modernity, its utopias and failures in the context of a shared history. The Golden Lion for the best national participation is awarded to the Hungarian Pavilion featuring the artist Andreas Fogarasi.”

Golden Lion to an artist under 40 exhibited in the central international exhibition or in the national participations: “The award for an artist under 40 is given for a practice that takes as its subject exile in general and the Palestinian issue in particular. Without recourse to exoticism, the work on display in the central Pavilion at the Giardini establishes and expands a crossover between cinema, archival documentation, narrative and sound. The Golden Lion to an artist under 40 overall, is given to Emily Jacir.”

Honourable Mention to an artist exhibited in the central international exhibition: “There is an installation in the Arsenale that impressed the Jury with its content, presentation and particular relevance to its location. The Jury wishes to give an honourable mention to an artist whose aesthetic projects span a diverse range of strategies, and in recognition of the provocative links he suggests between culture, politics and symbolic representation. The artist given an Honourable Mention for his participation in the central International Exhibition is Nedko Solakov.”

Golden Lion to an artist exhibited in the central international exhibition: “There is a body of work in the Arsenale that presents just some examples of a long and substantial career. The artist in question has continued a critical practice in the context of an often antagonistic political and social situation. He is given this award not only for his ethical attitude and political commitment, but also for a contemporary aesthetic relevance that is unexpected for a practice that spans six decades. The Golden Lion to an artist exhibited in the central International Exhibition is given to León Ferrari.”