The exhibition’s special citation reads: “He critically engages the history of colonial representation from a trans-Indigenous perspective.” His diverse art – which includes watercolors, textiles and photography – resistsExoticism of indigenous women while insisting on the power of sexuality.”
“I hope to open other doors so that other people like me can conquer spaces and free themselves from labels,” said the artist at the award ceremony.
La Chola Poblete, who works with performance, video art, photography and painting, restores the ancestral knowledge of Latin American areas through “queer” images and denounces it with her work in the Argentine pavilion of the Biennale Abuse and prejudice against indigenous peoples Population groups and indigenous stereotypes.
The Biennale’s Golden Lion went to the Mataaho Collective, founded by Maori artists Bridget Reweti, Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson and Terri Te Tau.
“We thank (Biennale’s Brazilian curator) Adriano Pedrosa for allowing so many queer and indigenous voices to be expressed in this Biennale. It is important to have a platform for expression in Venice,” said the artists, dedicating the award “to our families who have worked so hard for us to be here.
Nigeria’s Karimah Ashadu received the Silver Lion at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale, while the Australian pavilion received the Golden Lion for its monumental chalk-drawn family tree.
The second mention went to the artist of Palestinian origin Samia Halaby, 87 years old, Pioneer of digital art, while the special mention for national participation went to the Republic of Kosovo
The Golden Lions of the race went to the Turkish artist Nil Yalter, pioneer of the global feminist movement, and to Anna Maria Maiolino, born in Italy, Calabria, and emigrated to Brazil.
“Art is an adventure of the soul and I have always believed in it,” commented Maiolino, dedicating the prize “to Brazilian art”.
The 60th Venice Biennale opened its doors to the public this Saturday and until November 24th to show through art that there are “foreigners everywhere” – in an edition that is not only about the war in Palestine, but also by indigenous art, by “queer” artists and decolonization.
Many of the over 300 artists present in this edition are presenting their works for the first time in a biennial that, as its curator, the Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, explained, focuses on “foreign” artists, refugees and immigrants, on the queer universe – the “foreigners” as the first meaning of this word associated with the LGTBI+ community, the “outsiders” – on the fringes of the official art world – or the indigenous people.
