The award ceremony for the 55th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition was held on June 1st, and Koki Tanaka's Japan Pavilion installation, "abstract speaking - sharing uncertainty and collective acts," received a Special Mention in the National Exhibitions category, which featured 88 participating countries.

The exhibition, themed around the Great East Japan Earthquake, is comprised primarily of video and photographic works capturing multiple people working together on a single issue, such as "Nine Hairstylists Cutting One Hair" (2010), "Five Pianists Playing One Piano" (2012), and his new work, "Five Poets Writing One Poem" (2013). The exhibition was intended to encourage each viewer to consider how we can collaboratively build a post-disaster society. Tanaka commented, "My goal with this exhibition was to offer a modest suggestion of the possibilities that can be created through human collaboration." The Japan Pavilion's curator is Mika Kuraya (Chief of the Fine Arts Department at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). Koki Tanaka was born in 1975. Based in Los Angeles, he primarily works in video, photography, and performance, and has held exhibitions both in Japan and abroad. His video work, "Beholding Performer, Performing Beholder," is currently on display at CNAC LAB (5-4-30 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo) in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, until July 31st, making its Japan debut. Other notable award winners include the Golden Lion (Grand Prize) in the Individual Exhibition category to Tino Sehgal from the UK, the Golden Lion in the National Category to Edson Chagas from Angola, and the Silver Lion for promising young artists to Camille Henrot from France. The exhibition is open to the public until November 24th.

In the past, the Venice Biennale has awarded the Golden Lion to the Japan Pavilion designed by Toyo Ito and others at last year's architecture exhibition, and to Yoko Ono (2009), Hiroshi Senju (1995), and Masuo Ikeda (1966) at the art exhibition.