Carolee Schneeman has been awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – VIVA ARTE VIVA. The exhibition is curated by Christine Macel, who stated that:
“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.”
Carolee Schneemann was the honorary artist of Sequences VII in 2015, held April 10-19 in Reykjavík and curated by Alfredo Cramerotti. An exhibition of Schneemann’s works was put up in Kling&Bang gallery, then situated at Hverfisgata 42 – now in a brand new and vibrant space at the Marshall house.
Her works More Wrong Things (2001), Eye Body (1963/1964) and Up to and Including Her Limits (1973-76) were shown as well as an interview with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Additionally, the ten day festival was wrapped up by a screening of Breaking the Frame with Carolee Schneemann (2012) a film by Marielle Nitoslawska and an oversees artist talk with Schneemann herself, moderated by the artist Ragnar Kjartansson. Before the talk, her work Fuses from 1965 was screened. So, Carolee Schneemann certainly put her mark on the Sequences festival and the whole Reykjavík art scene during the 10 days and will keep on nurturing the arts with the seeds she has grown in the past.
Sequences proudly congratulates Carolee Schneemann on the Golden Lion award!
