Karimah Ashadu is awarded the “Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant” at the International Art Exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale, with her film installation ‘Machine Boys’ (2024). 

She extends much gratitude to the Jury who explains:

“With a searing intimacy, she captures the vulnerability of young men from the agrarian north of Nigeria who have migrated to Lagos and end up riding illegal motorbike taxis. Her feminist camera lens is extraordinarily sensitive and intimate, capturing the bikers’ subcultural experience as well as their economic precarity.”

The artist thanks her family, Adriano Pedrosa and the entire Curatorial and Biennale teams, Fondazione in between Art Film – Beatrice Bulgari, Leonardo Bigazzi and Alessandro Rabottini, Moin Film Förderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the Bikers, Crew and post-production teams.

The 60th International Art Exhibition runs until Sunday 24 November, 2024. Ashadu’s work can be seen in the Arsenale.