The artists Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte and Rugile Barzdziukaite won the Golden Lion for best national participation at the Biennale with their piece "Sun & Sea (Marina)", surpassing 89 other national pavilions. This marks the second consecutive win for a performance piece, following the German pavilion's victory in 2017 with Anne Imhof's "Faust." Meanwhile, American artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa received the Golden Lion for best participant in the central exhibition for his film "The White Album" and a series of sculptures featuring truck tires in chains. Catherine Wood, a senior curator at the Tate in London, expressed agreement with the choice of winners. Wood described the Lithuanian pavilion as having a clever way of showcasing people's everyday activities and leisure, such as lying on towels, playing board games, and chatting, while also addressing important issues like ecological disaster and species extinction. She noted that the pavilion's combination of pedestrian movement and storytelling created a mix of joy and melancholy. The curator of the pavilion, Lucia Pietroiusti, who also works at the Serpentine Galleries in London, encouraged museums to think creatively and move away from traditional exhibition formats in order to open up new possibilities. She criticized the tendency to specialize and create narrow niches within the art world. Then we come across significant disastrous events such as climate change or the extinction of species, and we must discover additional methods to establish connections.