Die Zeit reports that the Berlin-based American artist Adrian Piper has won the Golden Lion for best artist in Okwui Enwezor’s biennial exhibition “All the World’s Futures,” part of the 56th Venice Biennale, which opens to the public today. Piper received the award for a work that exhorts the viewer to a lifelong commitment to personal responsibility, Enwezor said at the award ceremony that took place today at Ca’ Giustinian. The Silver Lion for a promising young artist was awarded to Im Heung-soon for Factory Complex, 2014–15, a video that takes up the struggles of women workers across Asia. The jury for this year’s awards comprised Naomi Beckwith, Sabine Breitwieser, Mario Codognato, Ranjit Hoskote, and Yongwoo Lee.

In additional news from the ceremony, Armenia won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion for “Armenity: Contemporary Artists from the Armenian Diaspora,” held at the Mekhitarist Monastery on the Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni. Joan Jonas received a prestigious Special Mention for her installation They Come to Us Without a Word, commissioned by the MIT List Visual Arts Center for the US Pavilion. Additional Special Mentions were awarded to Harun Farocki, Massinissa Selmani, and the Abounaddara collective.