Venice Biennale Awards Posthumous Golden Lions to Four Former Directors

The Venice Biennale will award four special Golden Lions posthumously to Maurizio Calvesi, Germano Celant, Okwui Enwezor, and Vittorio Gregotti, all former artistic directors of its visual arts sector who died in 2019-2020. The awards will be presented on September 1, 2020 at the Giardini, three days after the opening of the exhibition "Le muse inquiete. La Biennale di Venezia di fronte alla storia," curated by Cecilia Alemani and running from August 29 to December 8, 2020. The exhibition marks the 125th anniversary of the institution and is the first to be co-curated by directors of all six artistic sectors, drawing on the ASAC historical archive and other national and international archives. Biennale President Roberto Cicutto stated that the international recognition of the Biennale is due to the work and originality of its artistic directors, who have marked significant changes in contemporary culture. Calvesi directed the 41st and 42nd International Art Exhibitions (1984, 1986); Celant directed the 47th in 1997; Enwezor directed the 56th in 2015; Gregotti served as director of visual arts from 1974 to 1977 and introduced architecture as a discipline. The pandemic forced the postponement of the Architecture Biennale to 2021 and the Art Biennale to 2022.