Venice Biennale Appoints International Jury for the 58th International Art Exhibition

Upon recommendation by the Artistic Director Ralph Rugoff, the board of directors of the Venice Biennial, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has appointed the International Jury of the 58th International Art Exhibition.

The Jury which will be in charge of the awards and recognition comprises of 5 members and is composed of:

• Stephanie Rosenthal – president of the jury.

She is the director of Gropius Bau Art Centre in Berlin – one of Germany’s pre-eminent public galleries for contemporary art. She has acquired a lot of experience as a curator of monographic as well as international group shows. Rosenthal has also served as the Artistic Director of the 20th Biennale of Sydney 2016.

• Defne Ayas

Served as the director of Rotterdam’s Witte de With Art Center for Contemporary Art as from 2012-2017.She also curated the Turkish Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale. Currently, Ayas is serving as the curator at Large at the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow.

• Cristiana Collu

Previously worked as the director of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto in Italy since 2012. She has also worked as the director of the MAN_Museo d’Arte of the Province of Nuoro. Currently she is serving as the general director of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome

• Sunjung Kim

Previously served as the director of one of Seoul’s pre-eminent contemporary art spaces, Art Sonje Center. Currently, Kim is serving as the president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation.

• Hamza Walker

For over two decades, Walker worked as a curator in shows at Chicago’s Renaissance Society. Currently is the Executive Director of LAXART –a non-profit art space in Los Angeles. Walker is recognized as the recipient for the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant, the 2004 Walter Hopps Award and the 2010 Ordway Prize for his curatorial and essayist works.

The International Jury will award the following official prizes:

• The Golden Lion for best national participation award.

• The Golden Lion for best participant in the international exhibition ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’.

• The Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the show ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’.

The jury will also award:

• A maximum of one special mention to National Participations.

• A maximum of two special mentions to the artists in the International Exhibition ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’.

The exhibition will be on showcase as from 11th May – 24th November 2019. The awards ceremony will hold during the official opening on Saturday 11th May, and will be open to the public as from 10 am at Ca’Giustinian, the Venice Biennial headquarters. The exhibition will be open to the public as from 10 am.