After the feast of national pavilions, predictions and exit polls, for the 60th Biennale of Venice the time has come to take stock with the assignment of the various prizes.

And, coherent to the end, the most "foreign" edition ever looked as far as possible, up to Oceania.

The Golden Lion for the best National Participation therefore went to Australia and the mammoth work of Archie Moore entitled "Kith and Kin".

A gigantic collective archive in which the Aboriginal artist collected, writing them one by one, the names of ancestors from the 65 thousand years preceding the "discovery" of Australia. A constantly evolving work, a sort of contemporary Sagrada Famiglia, where the public can intervene by adding other names.

«In this quiet Pavilion of great impact - we read in the motivation - the artist worked for months to hand draw with chalk a monumental family tree of the First Nation.

Thus 65,000 years of history (both recorded and lost) are inscribed on the dark walls and ceiling, inviting viewers to fill in the blanks and grasp the intrinsic fragility of this mournful archive."

Also at the antipodes was the choice of the Golden Lion for the best participant in the event which went to the New Zealand Maori collective Mataaho, with a work represented by an enormous structure metallic inspired by Maori fabrics.

The motivation speaks of «a luminous structure intertwined with straps that poetically cross the exhibition space».

He adds: «Referencing the matrilineal traditions of textiles, with its womb-like cradle, the installation is both a cosmology and a refuge. Its impressive dimensions are an engineering feat that was only made possible by the collective strength and creativity of the group."

Far, far away, as Luigi Tenco would say, the Silver Lion for best young girl, awarded to the thirty-nine year old of Nigerian origins Karimah Ashadu, has also ended, thanks to a video that challenges traditional gender distinctions.

“With a burning intimacy - it is said in the motivation - it captures the vulnerability of young men from the agrarian north of Nigeria, who emigrated to Lagos and ended up aboard illegal motorbike taxis.

Her feminist lens is extraordinarily sensitive and intimate, capturing the subcultural experience of motorcyclists and their economic precariousness."

Added to these awards are those already known for some time which led to the awarding of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Anna Maria Maiolino, Italian by birth but active in South America for over seventy years , especially in Brazil and Venezuela, and to the Turkish feminist activist artist Nil Yalter, Parisian by adoption. To complement the various awards, there are also three special mentions.

The first attributed to the Palestinian born in 1936, Samia Halaby, the second to the Argentinian La Chola Poblete (both on stage with works that address issues related to the queer universe) and the third to the Republic of Kosovo for its project, its commitment to feminism and the fight against inequalities in the world of employment. In short, "Foreigners Everywhere" is also in the list of winners.