Sonia Boyce's "Feeling Her Way": the British Pavilion winning the Golden Lion

Entitled Feeling Her Way, the project that won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale is the one Sonia Boyce created for the Pavilion of Great Britain, commissioned by the British Council.

Open from April 23 to Nov. 27, 2022, the installation by Sonia Boyce (London, 1962) makes use of the collaborative dynamism of five black female musicians (four British, one Swedish) brought together by the artist to interact by improvising playfully with their voices. Boyce places his color-filtered video works center stage amid interlocking patterned wallpapers and 3-D gilded geometric structures, whose reflective surfaces absorb the audience into the work. The pavilion rooms are filled with sounds (sometimes harmonious, sometimes dissonant) intended to express feelings of freedom, power and vulnerability.

The exhibition is curated by Emma Ridgway, who was selected as Shane Akeroyd Associate Curator of the British Pavilion through an open call. Since January 2021, Emma has worked alongside Sonia Boyce and the British Council team to produce the exhibition, and has authored the essay for the Feeling Her Way catalog.

The singers are award-winning artists from different generations, Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram, and composer Errollyn Wallen, who share jazz and soul influences and extraordinary voices. The central video installation shows their first meeting, in which they improvise and sing together a cappella demonstrating the potential of interaction as a pathway to innovation, a central theme in Sonia Boyce’s practice. The videos were shot at Abbey Road Studios in London and Atlantis Studios in Stockholm. This new commission grows out of Boyce’s Devotional Collection, a collection of musical artifacts documenting the contributions of black British women musicians to our emotional lives and transnational culture, a collection spanning more than three centuries of history, put together over more than two decades. Numerous objects from Devotional Collection, such as vinyls, CDs, books and other memorabilia, placed on gilded plinths, are an integral part of the installation.

Pavilion of Great Britain at the

Great Britain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022

Great Britain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022

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The statements.

“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to produce these works for the British Pavilion at the 2022 Art Biennale,” says Sonia Boyce. “The generosity and talent of those who contributed to Feeling Her Way is immense, and I am very proud of what has been accomplished. First and foremost, I thank the artists who took on the challenge of embarking on this journey-they are absolutely amazing!”

“We are extremely proud that Sonia Boyce is representing Britain at the Art Biennale 2022,” stresses Emma Dexter, Director of Visual Arts at the British Council, Commissioner of the British Pavilion and Chair of the British Pavilion Selection Committee. “Feeling Her Way perfectly illustrates her highly collaborative practice, bringing artists together in a spirit of inclusion, generosity, experimentation and play. This is her most ambitious exhibition to date, and it brings new ideas and perspectives to the British Pavilion. Sonia calls us to consider how Black British women musicians have played a role in our lives, inspiring us to immerse ourselves in a truly joyful experience.”

“It has been a privilege and a real pleasure to work on this exciting exhibition with Sonia Boyce, the singers, the production teams and the British Council,” says curator Emma Ridgway. “At the heart of the exhibition are color-filtered video works that envelop the gallery spaces in the exciting sound of women’s voices. Effective singing requires both imagination and the optimal use of each breath, which is especially relevant in recent times when both breathing and improvising together under uncertain conditions have become vital.”

Since 1937, the British Council has been responsible for the British Pavilion in the international art and architecture exhibitions of the Venice Biennale, where it has presented the best of the UK’s artists, architects, designers and curators. These exhibitions, and the British Council’s Venice Fellowships initiative, introduced in 2016, aim to help make the British Pavilion an important platform for discussion on contemporary art and architecture. The artist selected for the Art Biennale 2022 was chosen by a jury of visual arts specialists from across the United Kingdom. This year’s British Pavilion is made possible thanks to the support of individuals, companies and foundations, including Burberry, a major partner. The Great Britain Pavilion won the Golden Lion with the following motivation, “Sonia Boyce proposes another reading of stories through sound. Working in collaboration with other black women, she reveals a multitude of stories that have remained unheard. Boyce proposes a very contemporary language in the fragmented forms that the viewer reconstructs through her experience in the pavilion. Important questions of evidence are posed as opposed to perfect attunement, as are the relationships between voices in the form of a chorus, at a distance and at different points in the exhibition.”

Sonia Boyce’s British Council Commission for the British Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale is open from April 23 to November 27, 2022. For more information you can visit the British Council website.

Sonia Boyce's "Feeling Her Way": the British Pavilion winning the Golden Lion

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