Apr. 12, 2024
Next week, the Biennale of Art will open in Venice. The national pavilions and main exhibition, curated by Adriano Pedrosa under the theme ‘Foreigners Everywhere,’ will also be accompanied by a rich selection of collateral exhibitions and events across the city. Below are some of the highlights that we’ve selected for the opening days and coming Biennale months in Venice.
Ocean Space
Latai Taumoepeau and Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta: ‘Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania’
Exhibition: Mar. 23–Oct. 13, 2024
ocean-space.org
Campo S. Lorenzo, 5069, 30122 Venice, click here for map
TBA21-Academy presents ‘Restor(y)ing Oceania,’ an innovative exhibition with two site-specific commissions from indigenous artists Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta and Latai Taumoepeau. The installation fosters curator Taloi Havini’s vision of solidarity and kinship amidst the climate crisis through performance, sculpture and poetry. Heta’s multi-sensory installation will reflect on the Māori concept of “tikanga,” while Taumoepeau’s choral work focuses on her resistance to deep sea mining. Their collaboration highlights the importance of ocean conservation and of uniting communities through ancestral knowledge and artistic exchange.
Latai Taumoepeau: ‘Deep Communion sung in minor (ArchipelaGO, THIS IS NOT A DRILL),’ 2024, exhibition view of ‘Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania,’ at Ocean Space, Venice, Co-commissioned by TBA21–Academy and Artspace, and produced in partnership with OGR Torino // Photo by Giacomo Cosua
EVA International
EVA International and Eimear Walshe: ‘TRADE SCHOOL’
Exhibition: Apr. 17, 2024; 12:30pm
eva.ie
Rifondazione Comunista, C Nuova, 2061/A, 30122, Venice, click here for map
EVA International and Eimear Walshe will be partnering for the 2024 version of the performance ‘TRADE SCHOOL’ (2021). ‘TRADE SCHOOL’ is a video project by Eimear Walshe, Ireland’s representative at the 60th Venice Biennale. The project explores queer narratives in Ireland while thoroughly engaging with the landscape and also traces a history of sexual conservatism during the 19th and 20th centuries. On April 17th, during the Biennale preview, Eimear Walshe and the rest of the cast consisting of Dylan Kerr, Cameron Lynch and Colm Keady-Tabbal will journey throughout the canals of Venice distributing hard copies of their work while in character. The event will coincide with Walshe’s representation of Ireland at the Biennale, with the exhibition ‘ROMANTIC IRELAND’ curated by Sara Greavu and Project Arts Centre.
Eimear Walshe: ‘TRADE SCHOOL,’ 2021, video still // Courtesy of the artist
Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation
Group Show: ‘The Spirits of Maritime Crossing’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
universes.art
Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana, 30100 Venice, click here for map
The Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) Foundation presents the work of 15 artists in ‘The Spirits of Maritime Crossing,’ curated by Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda. The exhibition will showcase a constellation of artworks from Southeast Asia, ranging from paintings and sculptures to mixed media works and video installations, and reflecting upon cultural flows and moving water as metaphors of unexplored ocean and territories. The exhibition highlights themes of displacement, diaspora, colonialism and hybrids of diverse cultures across Southeast Asia with a particular emphasis on symbolism of water and maritime crossings.
Chitti Kasemkitvatana and Nakrob Moonmanas: ‘Our Place in Their World,’ 2023, two-channel video installation, color, sound, 4:00 min, video still, commissioned by Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation, collection of the artists // Courtesy the artists, Bangkok Art Biennale, © Chitti Kasemkitvatana and Nakrob Moonmanas
Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore
Berlinde De Bruyckere: ‘City of Refuge III’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
abbaziasangiorgio.it
Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore 2, 30124 Venice, click here for map
The Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore presents Berlinde De Bruyckere’s ‘City of Refuge III.’ Inspired by a Nick Cave song, this exhibition marks the third installment in Belgian artist De Bruyckere’s exploration of art as sanctuary and was created in collaboration with Benedicti Claustra Onlus and director Carmelo A. Grasso. Curated by Peter Buggenhout and Ory Dessau, ‘City of Refuge III’ delves into themes of imminence and transcendence through three new groups of works designed to uniquely respond to the church’s architecture, history and symbolism. From large-scale installations to Arcangeli sculptures and wall-vitrine works, De Bruyckere’s creations strive to evoke both tenderness and unease, transcending religious connotations to address universal themes of love, protection and suffering.
Berlinde De Bruyckere, installation for the Sacristy of San Giorgio Maggiore Abbey, 2024 (shown in progress), wax, iron and epoxy // © Berlinde De Bruyckere, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, photo © Mirjam Devriendt
Kestner Gesellschaft
Rebecca Ackroyd: ‘Mirror Stage’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
kestnergesellschaft.de
Fondaco Marcello, C. del Tragheto, 3415, 30123 Venice, click here for map
Kestner Gesellschaft will present an exhibition in the Fondaco Marcello featuring British artist Rebecca Ackroyd, titled ‘Mirror Stage.’ The exhibition will present a collection of new works by Ackroyd, aiming to distort our perception of reality, desire, disgust, the familiar and the uncanny, past and present. These ideas are translated through Ackroyd’s dreamy installations, which consist of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast sculptures and ready-made objects. ‘Mirror Stage’ is an expansion on Ackroyd’s ‘Period Drama,’ a solo exhibition presented at Kestner Gesellschaft from November 2023 to February 2024, exploring the notion that a mirror is both a reflective tool with which we insert ourselves into the surrounding world and a motif that divides the conscious and unconscious states.
Rebecca Ackroyd: ‘Period Drama,’ 2023, installation view, Kestner Gesellschaft // Photo by Volker Crone, courtesy the Artist, Peres Projects, Berlin
M+ Hong Kong
Trevor Yeung: ‘Courtyard of Attachments, Hong Kong in Venice’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Sept. 30, 2024
mplus.org
Campo de la Tana, 2126, 30122 Venice, click here for map
‘Courtyard of Attachments’ is hosted by M+, the global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC). The exhibition features a solo show of brand-new works by Hong Kong–based artist Trevor Yeung and is curated by Olivia Chow. In the exhibition, Yeung explores sentimentality, desire and relationships of power through the concept of attachment, articulated through the artist’s understanding and observation of the relationships between humans and aquatic systems. Featuring 11 new artworks, some of which are site-specific, the show draws from references that include Yeung’s father’s seafood restaurant, pet shops, feng shui arrangements and the fish he kept as a child. His work questions how closed systems contain and create emotional and behavioral conditions.
Trevor Yeung: ‘Rolling Gold Fountain (detail),’ 2024, metal plinth, fish tank, fountain pump system, water, dyed clear quartz, processed rose quartz, glass, and golden healer quartz, 90 × 40 × 152 cm // © Trevor Yeung, photo © South Ho, commissioned by M+, 2024
LAS Art Foundation
Josèfa Ntjam: ‘swell of spæc(i)es’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
las-art.foundation
Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Fondamenta Zattere Allo Spirito Santo, 423, 30123 Venice, click here for map
Palazzina Canonica – CNR ISMAR, Riva dei Sette Martiri, 1364/A, 30122 Venice, click here for map
LAS Art Foundation presents ‘Swell of spæc(i)es,’ an installation by artist, performer and writer Josèfa Ntjam. Ntjam’s practice features a combination of sculpture, photomontage, moving images and sound. Housed in a pavilion in the courtyard of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the installation takes the form of a landscape, showing a film displayed on a large curved LED wall, accompanied by a soundscape composed by Fatima al Qadiri. Using AI and digital tools, Ntjam explores circular creation processes and Dogon cosmogony to convey a narrative with the utilization of certain interspecies characters. With the process of blending, Ntjam combines the histories that were susceptible to hegemonic erasure to marine and cosmic landscapes in order to enable their resurgence. The artist explains: “’swell of spæc(i)es’ is an alchemical process in perpetual agitation, the alloying of ancestral geneses with new image creation technologies.” In addition, at the Palazzina Canonica – CNR-ISMAR (Istituto di Scienze Marine), visitors are invited to join Ntjam in the process of multiplying the avatars of these histories into new forms, creating their own AI-generated hybrid species from her dataset. The blend of organic and technological, both in process and narrative, act as a method to deconstruct the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on origin, identity and race.
Josèfa Ntjam: ‘swell of spæc(i)es,’ 2024, film render, commissioned by LAS Art Foundation // Courtesy the artist, LAS Art Foundation, Galerie Poggi, Paris, © ADAGP, Paris
Chanakya Foundation
Madhvi Parekh, Manu Parekh, Karishma Swali, Chanakya School: ‘Cosmic Garden’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
e-flux.com
Calle Regina 2258, 30135, Venice, click here for map
Simultaneously reinterpreting traditional artistic techniques and attempting to dismantle ideological hierarchies within the art world, Indian artists Madhvi Parekh, Manu Parekh, and Karishma Swali present ‘Cosmic Garden.’ The exhibition, curated by Maria Alicata and Paola Ugolini, is comprised of paintings, sculptures and hand embroidery and is being shown at the Salone Verde Art & Social Club in Venice. This inaugural showcase celebrates India’s artisanal heritage and indigenous artistic practices. The collaboration between the three artists redefines traditional techniques and emphasize dedication to craft excellence. Further, in collaboration with the Chanakya Foundation of which Swali is the creative director, the exhibition shows its commitment to women’s empowerment and to preserving India’s rich culture.
Karishma Swali & Chanakya Foundation: ‘Untitled VIII,’ 2023, needlepoint embroidery, 282×431 cm // Photo by Abner Fernandes, private collection, courtesy the artist, Manu Parekh, © Karishma Swali & Chanakya Foundation
Taipei Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan
Yuan Goang-Ming: ‘Everyday War’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Nov. 24, 2024
tfam.museum
Palazzo delle Prigioni, Calle Seconda de la Fava, 4209, 30122 Venice, click here for map
‘Everyday War’ is a solo presentation of works, from 2014 to the present, by Taiwan-based artist, Yuan Goang-Ming. Signaling a search for home in an era of fragility and conflict, the exhibition foregrounds personal and collective desire to understand survival, peace, safety, freedom and poetics. For Yuan Goang-Ming, the exhibition is a site of allegory reflecting the past and present as well as a prophecy of the human future told through his multi-media installations. Curated by Abby Chen, the Head of Contemporary Art and Senior Associate Curator at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the exhibition features artworks that used image and sound to convey the looming threat faced by those who live in the seat of war.
Yuan Goang-Ming: ‘Dwelling,’ 2014, single-channel video, 5 minutes looped // © Yuan Goang-Ming, courtesy of the artist and TFAM of Taiwan Collateral Event 2024
PinchukArtCentre
Group Show: ‘From Ukraine: Dare to Dream’
Exhibition: Apr. 20–Aug. 1, 2024
pinchukartcentre.org
Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Sestiere Dorsoduro, 874, 30123, Venice, click here for map
Featuring 22 artists and collectives, the group exhibition ‘From Ukraine: Dare to Dream,’ organized by PinchukArtCentre, asks: Can we imagine tomorrow? Do we have the courage to dream? As storms and climate change ravage lands, political extremes are seizing momentum. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unveiled an ongoing global power struggle that has brought war back to Europe. This exhibition—curated by Bjorn Geldhof, Ksenia Malykh and Oleksandra Pogrebnyak—is a continuation of PinchukArtCentre’s proactive engagement with Ukrainian art on a global and national stage since the outbreak of war in 2022. Departing from Ukraine and its history of forced migration, the exhibition sounds subdued voices that become songs of resistance and resilience. It addresses ecological disasters while imagining a new utopia, where mythology merges into an alternative garden of Eden.
Lesia Khomenko: ‘Max in the Army (series),’ ‘This is Ukraine Defending Freedom,’ Venice, 2022 // Courtesy PinchukArtCentre
