Report on the 56th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition

This event can be considered the origin of international art exhibitions, having started in Venice, Italy in 1895. Each time, the Golden Lion, Silver Lion and Special Award winners are selected from among the participating countries and artists. "Biennale" means "every two years" in Italian, and it has been held every two years, and although it has been suspended due to war, this year marks its 56th anniversary. Although it is an international exhibition that already has a history of over 100 years, it still attracts attention from the global art world as a place that provides an overview of cutting-edge contemporary art trends, and as one of the few international exhibitions that adopts a national participation format.

The main venues are the Giardini, the largest park in the city of Venice, and the Arsenale, the national shipyard, but various related exhibitions (collateral events) are held throughout the island at the same time. The Japanese Pavilion is located in the Giardini Park, and was completed in 1956 with the help of a donation from Shojiro Ishibashi, founder of Bridgestone Tire (now Bridgestone). Since then, as of 2015, 76 artists have exhibited there.

Event period: 2015.5.9 – 11.22
General Curator : Okwui Enwezor
Special exhibition title : "All the World's Futures"

▽National Section (Japan Pavilion)

Representative artist : Chiharu Shiota
Curator : Nakano Hitoshi (Kanagawa Arts and Culture Foundation)
Exhibition title : The Key in the Hand

Golden Lion Award for Participating Artists in the Special Exhibition Category
Adrian Piper "Everything" series
Silver Lion Award for Participating Artists in the Special Exhibition Category
Lim Heung-soon "Factory Complex"
Special Award for Participating Artists in the Exhibition
Harun Farocki, Anonymous Filmmaking Group Abu Nadara, Massinissa Selmani

Golden Lion in the National Category
Armenia Pavilion "Armenity / Haiyutioun. Contemporary artists from the Armenian Diaspora" (Curator: Adelina von Furstenberg)
Special Awards in the Country Category
United States Pavilion "They Come to Us without a Word" (Artist: Joan Jonas / Curators: Ute Meta Bauer, Paul C. Ha)

Judges
Naomi Beckwith (Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago);
Sabine Breitwieser (Chief Curator of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art, New York);
Mario Codognato (Chief Curator, Belvedere 21st Century Museum),
Ranjit Hoskote (poet and art critic),
Lee Yong-woo (former chairman of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation)