Carolee Schneemann is the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – VIVA ARTE VIVA.

The decision was made by La Biennale’s Board of Directors chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon recommendation of the curator of the 57th International Art Exhibition, Christine Macel, who stated:

"Carolee Schneemann (born in Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, 1939, lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York) has been one of the most important figures in the development of performance and Body Art. She is a pioneer of feminist performance of the early 1960s. She has used her own body as the prevalent material of her art. In so doing, she situates women as both the creator and an active part of the creation itself. In opposition to traditional representation of women merely as nude object, she has used the naked body as a primal, archaic force which could unify energies. Her style is direct, sexual, liberating and autobiographical. She champions the importance of women’s sensual pleasure and she examines the possibilities of political and personal emancipation from predominant social and aesthetic conventions. Through the exploration of a large range of media, such as painting, filmmaking, video art and performance, Schneemann re-writes her personal history of art, refusing the idea of an “his-tory” narrated exclusively from the male point of view."

The acknowledgment will be awarded to Carolee Schneemann on Saturday, May 13th, 2017 at Ca’ Giustinian, the headquarters of La Biennale di Venezia, during the awards ceremony and inauguration of the 57th Exhibition, which will open to the public at 10:00 a.m. on that same day.

(Presseinformation. © Foto: La Biennale di Venezia)

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