As the Art World flocks to see the national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, cultural institutions around town put their best show forward. Here are my Top 5 exhibitions to see in Venice right now.
Pierre Huyghe, Punta della Dogana
For his largest exhibition to date, French artist Pierre Huyghe delves into the intersection of humanity, nature, and artificial constructs through site-specific installations. The show is spread across 3,500 sq. m at Punta della Dogana, and features over a dozen works including five new pieces, showcasing an evolution of technologies.
Staged like an immersive experience, the exhibition lets viewers wander from narratives featuring hybrid beings, to a room of massive tanks filled with sea creatures hiding in a replica of Brancusi’ sculpture. More than ever, Huyghe blurs the lines between reality and fiction. As we walk around the space in semi-darkness, masked humans follow their own journey, seemingly unaware of our existence.
At the heart of the show is the eponymous work, “Liminal,” a simulation-on-film shaped by inputs from the environment and AI. The piece hints at the frontier between human and non-human entities, where visitors interact with the exhibits, in real-time. Music also plays an important role, soaking the audience in a creepy, dissonant atmosphere dotted with tinnitus-like lingering pitches.
Ultimately, the show offers profound insights into the nature of consciousness and being, asking us to consider what – still – makes us Human.
Pierre Huyghe: Liminal, Punta della Dogana, until 24th November 2024
Breasts, ACP Palazzo Franchetti
Curator Carolina Pasti has selected thirty emerging and established artists, spanning from the Renaissance to the contemporary era, to offer a reflection on the diverse cultural interpretations of breasts.
Set inside the Palazzo Franchetti near the Accademia, the show invites viewers on a journey through time and space that is equally fun, quirky, and thought-provoking.
Curated over five rooms, each with its thematic focus, Breasts provides a nuanced examination of the complexities of femininity and explores themes around maternity, fertility, sexuality and identity.
It is worth stopping in front of Charlotte Colbert’s Mastectomy Mameria (2019) a sculpture which addresses femininity and the power of resilience. The Hidden Paintings Grandma Improved, In Deepth, by Laure Prouvost comments on women’s condition, and how they are often forced to sacrifice their own career to support their spouse.
In another room, artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Prune Nourry take a lighter, more surrealistic approach to the topic, while in the next section, Christopher Bucklow and Oliviero Toscani (top image) twist the codes of advertising on their head.
Elsewhere, Untitled #205 (1999) shows Cindy Sherman pretending to be pregnant. The piece hints at her time in Rome when she learned about great historical paintings – and the associated male gaze – through books instead of going to museums.
From the historical representation of breasts to their commercialization in advertising and contemporary deconstructions, the exhibition offers a comprehensive exploration of a symbol that is too often stereotyped.
Breasts, Palazzo Franchetti, until 24th November 2024
Christoph Büchel, Fondazione Prada
The Fondation Prada in Venice has entrusted Swiss artist Christoph Büchel with complete creative freedom to bring his monumental project to life within the halls of Palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina.
Photo: Marco Cappelletti Courtesy: Fondazione Prada
Called Monte di Pietà, Büchel’s immersive installation delves deep into the intricate workings of our economic system, reimagining the pivotal role played by immigrant communities. Spanning several floors, the environment presents an array of scenes that evoke the struggles and resilience of those on the margins. A pawn shop and the remnants of a thrift store lay on an entire floor, next to broken toys and rooms filled to the ceiling with useless knick-knacks.
Photo: Marco Cappelletti Courtesy: Fondazione Prada
On the upper floors, computer screens evoke the late-night shifts of hopeful souls mining bitcoins while smoking electronic cigarettes. On another one, a live broadcast of the news show a rough world that some people have had a harder time escaping than others.
Photo: Marco Cappelletti Courtesy: Fondazione Prada
Büchel offers a poignant glimpse into the lives of those navigating the complexities of modern society. ultimately addressing the human condition.
Christoph Büchel, Monte di Pietà, Fondazione Prada, until 24th November 2024
Julie Mehretu, Palazzo Grassi
Installation view, “Julie Mehretu. Ensemble”, 2024, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection
Curated by Caroline Bourgeois, Chief Curator of the Pinault Collection, Ensemble gathers a selection of over fifty works spanning 25 years by artist Julie Mehretu. Among these are the artist’ latest creations, dating 2021-2024. Spread across two floors of the Palazzo Grassi, the show features 17 pieces from the Pinault Collection, alongside loans from international museums and private collectors.
“Ensemble” stages Mehretu’s closest artistic allies—individuals with whom she shares profound connections forged through years of collaboration. Here, the intertwined works of Mehretu’s friends, like Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Robin Coste Lewis, Paul Pfeiffer, and Jessica Rankin, engage in a dialogue with her own artistic vision.
Despite their diverse forms, there is a sense of shared themes and mutual influences, which challenges the notion of the solitary artist. It also affirms Mehretu’s profound connection to the world and those within it.
The show offers a liberating, non-linear exploration of Mehretu’s artistic journey, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in her creative process and its continual evolution.
Julie Mehretu, Atlas, 2016-2021, The Broad Art Foundation. Installation view, “Julie Mehretu. Ensemble”, 2024, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection
The exhibition is done in partnership with K21–Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), where it will continue its journey in 2025.
Installation view, “Julie Mehretu. Ensemble”, 2024, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection
Julie Mehretu, Ensemble, Palazzo Grassi, Until 6th January 2025
Francesco Vezzoli, Museo Correr
Museo Correr dedicates its space to Italian artist and filmmaker Francesco Vezzoli, to look at the intricate interplay between tradition and contemporary culture. Curated by Donatien Grau, the exhibition unveils 36 of Vezzoli’s works spanning two decades, complemented by 16 pieces crafted exclusively for the exhibition.
Vezzoli’s textured canvases are juxtaposed against Venetian treasures from the 13th to the 17th centuries, housed in the sleek modernist interiors envisioned by architect Carlo Scarpa in the 1950s. Together, they form his Musei delle Lacrime (Museum of Tears).
The exhibition opens with Casino (Giotto, Wynn and Warhol Were Gamblers). The embroidered tear is extracted from Steve Wynn’s portrait of Andy Warhol and also features a view of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padova, painted by Giotto. The work dates 2024 and questions the relationship between the artist and the patron.
Photo credit: Melania Dalle Grave_DSL Studio.
Each painting is embroidered with tearful figures, weaving diverse historical and pop culture references into the fabric. Representations of Lady Gaga and the Kardashians juxtaposed quotes from the works of Alighiero Boetti, Andy Warhol, and Robert Mapplethorpe, giving them a new meaning.
Photo credit: Melania Dalle Grave_DSL Studio.
Beyond the simple juxtaposition, the exhibition is a conceptual artwork in its own right. Vezzoli created an audio guide, which he also narrates. The experience blurs the lines between observer, interpreter, and creator. It also challenges the definition of a museum, and the powerplay that usually comes with it.
Francesco Vezzoli, Musei delle Lacrime, Museo Correr, jusqu’au 24th November 2024
