Contemporary artist Nil Yalter has been awarded the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award by the Venice Biennale. Yalter shares the award with Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino. The two artists were awarded the award for their significant contributions to contemporary art.
The award will be presented to the artists during the opening ceremony of the 60th edition of the biennial titled “Foreigners Everywhere” on April 20, 2024.
STATEMENT BY CURATOR ADRIANO PEDROSA
"This decision is particularly significant given the title and framework of our exhibition, which focuses on artists who travel and migrate between North and South, Europe and beyond, and vice versa. In this sense, my choice is based on two extraordinary, pioneering women artists who were themselves migrants and who in many ways embody the spirit of Stranieri Ovunque - Strangers Everywhere: Anna Maria Maiolino (Scalea, Italy, 1942, lives in São Paulo, Brazil), who emigrated from Italy to South America, first to Venezuela and then to Brazil, where she lives today; and Nil Yalter (Cairo, Egypt, 1938, lives in Paris, France), a Turk who emigrated from Cairo to Istanbul and finally to Paris."
ANNA MARIA MAIOLINO AND NİL YALTER AT BIENNALE ARTE FOR THE FIRST TIME
Both artists will participate in the Biennale Arte for the first time in 2024: Maiolino will present a new large-scale work that continues and develops his series of clay sculptures and installations, while Yalter will be exhibiting a new version of his innovative installation Exile Hard Work alongside his iconic Topak Ev in the first room of the Central Pavilion in the Giardini.
