La Ribot Receives Golden Lion for Dance at 2020 Venice Biennale

Spanish artist, dancer, and choreographer La Ribot was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the 2020 Biennale Danza, directed by Marie Chouinard. In her acceptance speech, she spoke in Spanish, her mother tongue, citing the pandemic's chilling effect on her heart. Based in Switzerland, she is known for her transdisciplinary practice spanning visual arts, performance, dance, and poetry. Her work "Más distinguidas" (1997), presented at the Venice Biennale in October 2020, comprises 13 short solos owned by individual collectors, including Jerome Bel and Franko B. The piece critiques the commodification of artists' bodies and the art market, using nudity and fragmented gestures. La Ribot dedicates her award to migrant, child, refugee, and enslaved artists affected by the pandemic, calling for art as a shared, viral, and relational field. Her practice is described by Chouinard as an "incarnate manifesto" that constantly destroys preconceptions.