Britain’s Sonia Boyce has won the Golden Lion prize for the best national exhibition at the 2022 Venice Biennale.
The coveted Golden Lion award goes to the Best National Participation on show at the art fair, with Boyce chosen as Britain’s representative ahead of this year’s edition – the 59th in the Venice Biennale’s history, running until November.
The last British winner of the Golden Lion was Richard Hamilton, in 1993.
Boyce’s instalment, titled Feeling Her Way, features five Black female voices against tessellating wallpaper and golden 3D geometric structures. Those voices come from Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram and composer Errollyn Wallen.
“The resulting videos of the singers play out in an immersive, bright environment full of colourful wallpaper and golden embellishment,” the Guardian said of the work.
The British Council, who chose Boyce and commissioned Feeling Her Way, said: “The rooms of the pavilion are filled with sounds — sometimes harmonious, sometimes clashing — embodying feelings of freedom, power and vulnerability.”
#BiennaleArte2022 Golden Lion for Best National Participation to the #BritishPavilion. “#SoniaBoyce proposes, consequently, another reading of histories through the sonic. In working collaboratively with other black women, she unpacks a plenitude of silenced stories.” pic.twitter.com/yE4dQGWbCh
— La Biennale di Venezia (@la_Biennale) April 23, 2022
Feeling Her Way expands on Boyce’s long-running project, Devotional Initiative, an archive of vinyl, CDs and memorabilia that the artist began in 1999.
“The resulting videos of the singers play out in an immersive, bright environment full of colourful wallpaper and golden embellishment,” the Guardian says.
The Golden Lion prize jury members are Adrienne Edwards (president), Lorenzo Giusti (Italy), Julieta González (Mexico), Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (Cameroon), and Susanne Pfeffer (Germany).
