Germany Wins 57th Venice Biennale Best National Pavilion

liza Douglas and Franziska Aigner in Anne Imhof’s Faust (2017).German Pavilion, 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia ©Photo Nadine Fraczkowski,

The Jury of the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, has awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation to German Pavilion. According to a  press statement received few hours ago from La Biennale di Venezia, the

Golden Lion for Best National Participation was given to Germany courtesy of Anne Imhof Commissioner: ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office. Curator: Susanne Pfeffer. Exhibitor: Anne Imhof. Venue: Giardini.

  The German Pavilion was picked "for a powerful
and disturbing installation that poses urgent questions about our time."

  Nigeria is among the participating countries that are making their debut at the 57^th Venice Biennale. Peju Alatise, Victor Ehikhamenor, Jelili Atiku and Qudus Onikeku are the artists whose works are currently showing at the event under Nigerian flag.

  Under listed are other awards announced: A special mention has been awarded to the following National Participation: BRAZIL Cinthia Marcelle Commissioner: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. President: João Carlos de Figueiredo Ferraz. Curator: Jochen Volz. Exhibitor: Cinthia Marcelle. Venue: Giardini.

Golden Lion for the Best Artist of the Exhibition Viva Arte Viva to: Franz Erhard Walther (Born in 1939 in Germany, lives and works in Fulda) Venue: Arsenale - Corderie

Silver Lion for a Promising Young Artist to: Hassan Khan (Born in 1975 in the UK, lives and works in Cairo) Venue: Giardino delle Vergini

The Jury has decided to award two special mentions to the following artists: Charles Atlas (Born in 1949 in the USA, lives and works in New York) Venue: Arsenale - Corderie and Petrit Halilaj (Born in 1986 in Kosovo, lives and works between Bozzolo, Berlin and Pristina) Venue: Arsenale – Corderie/Sale d’Armi G – Giardini/Central Pavilion

The Awards Ceremony of the 57th Exhibition took place today May 13th 2017 at Ca’ Giustinian. Upon recommendation of curator of the 57th Exhibition Christine Macel, the board of La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, also awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Carolee Schneemann (USA).The motivations The awards of the International Jury are awarded with the following motivations:

Golden Lion for Best National Participation to Germany for a powerful and disturbing installation that poses urgent questions about our time. It pushes the spectator to a state of anxiety. An original response to the architecture of the pavilion, Imhof’s work is also characterized by precise decisions about objects, images, bodies and sounds.

Special mention as National Participation to Brazil for an installation which produces an enigmatic and unbalanced space in which we cannot feel secure. Both the structure of the installation and the video by Cinthia Marcelle in partnership with filmmaker Tiago Mata Machado evoke the concerns of contemporary Brazilian society.

Golden Lion for the Best Artist of the 57th International Art Exhibition Viva Arte Viva to Franz Erhard Walther for his work, which brings together forms, colour, fabrics, sculpture, performance and continues to activate the viewer in engaging ways; for the radical and complex nature of his oeuvre that has an impact on our time and suggests a way of living in transit.

Silver Lion for a Promising Young Artist to Hassan Kahn for the special and intimate relationship that his work establishes with the spectator, to whom he suggests a connection between voice, sound and the horizon. His Composition for a Public Park creates an immersive experience which beautifully intertwines the political and the poetic.

This year, there are two Special Mentions awarded to the following artists: Charles Atlas, for two videos of great visual splendour and sophisticated editing in which images of natural and artificial beauty are joined to words addressing questions of austerity and frustration, sexuality and class.

Petrit Halilaj, for imaginative interventions in the architecture of the Arsenale and Central Pavilion, which create relationships between the history of Kosovo and childhood memories.