The Golden Lion for best national entry was awarded to Australia by the jury of the 60th Venice Biennale in a ceremony that predominantly honored female creators.
The reason for the project “Kith and Kin” (Kin) which was warmly applauded.
As the title of the work suggests, “Kith and kin” addresses the legacies of Australia’s colonial history by bridging the personal with the collective/political element.
The result is a massive installation by artist Archie Moore that emerged after months of research and dedication, according to the award’s reasoning.
The project “Kith and kin” brings to the fore the family tree of an entire continent. The central point of the presentation is the understanding of time as a vast archive, while it speaks of the universality of the human family. “It is a monument dedicated to every living thing that has passed through the country, a space for peaceful reflection on the past, present and future,” reads the curatorial note.
In contrast to this year’s theme of Foreigners Everywhere, Moore transforms the Australia Pavilion into a vast, hand-drawn genealogical map of First Nations spanning more than 2,400 generations and 65,000 years.
