Turkish artist awarded Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion

VENICE

The Venice Biennale has awarded the 2024 Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to Turkish artist Nil Yalter and Brazilian Anna Maria Maiolino.

The artists, who will be making their debuts at the Biennale, will be presented with the awards at a ceremony during the event’s opening on April 20 next year.

The winners were put forward by Adriano Pedrosa, the curator of the Biennale’s central exhibition, and then approved by the organization’s board of directors, which is chaired by film producer Roberto Cicutto.

“This decision is particularly meaningful given the title and framework of my exhibition, focused as it is on artists who have travelled and migrated between North and South, Europe and beyond,” Pedrosa said in a statement. “In this sense, my choice rests upon two extraordinary, pioneering women artists who are also migrants and who embody in many ways the spirit of Foreigners Everywhere.”

Born in Egypt in 1938, Yalter moved to Paris in 1965. The pioneering feminist artist's major works include the installation “Topak Ev” (1973), which she installed at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, and the video “The Headless Woman or the Belly Dance” (1974), which addresses the objectification of Middle Eastern women.

At the Biennale, Yalter will show Topak Ev and a new configuration of her installation “Exile is a hard job” (1975–ongoing), in which she posted drawings and photos of immigrants in neighborhoods without authorization.

Previous winners of the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award include Katharina Fritsch and Cecilia Vicuna in 2022, Jimmie Durham in 2019, Carolee Schneemann in 2017 and El Anatsui in 2015.