10 Highlights Of The Venice Biennale 2024: Collateral Events

The world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Art Biennale, opened last week and will run until November 24 in two main locations, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as all over Venice, in museums, foundations, galleries, churches and palaces. These “side events” are free and open mostly through the fall. From awe-inspiring painting shows to sculptural installations, here are ten must-see exhibitions spread across the city nicknamed “The Serenity.”

Jean Cocteau, The Juggler's Revenge at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection until September 16

The largest retrospective ever organized in Italy dedicated to Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), the enfant terrible of the French artistic scene of the 20th century highlights the versatility of the artist and the multiple juggling acts that distinguished his production, which often drew criticism from his contemporaries. It is the opportunity to see works from private collections and from the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Nouveau Musée National in Monaco and the Jean Cocteau Museum, Séverin Wunderman Collection in Menton. More than 150 works on display include drawings, graphics, jewellery, tapestries, historical documents, books, magazines, photographs, documentaries and films directed by Cocteau.

Wallace Chan, transcendence, Santa Maria della Pietà, until September 30

Escape the throngs of tourists and immerse yourself in a soothing spiritual exhibition of stunning titanium sculptures created by a former Buddhist monk. transcendence by Chinese jeweler and artist Wallace Chan is the artist's third exhibition at the Biennale. It also follows the wheel of time a recent exhibition at Christie's in London, the largest show of his 50-year career to date, including carving, sculpture and jewellery. The installation in Venice includes four large-scale titanium sculptures suspended from the ceiling of the chapel and two smaller pieces on a table at the end of the room. As viewers move through the chapel, the arrangement of the hanging sculptures favors a gradual transition from a state of conflict to one of peace and tranquility. The last large piece is a tulip with its petals open and on the table beyond the flower are two small sculptures of Buddha and Jesus. Inspired by Christian and Buddhist ideas, Chan sees the universe as global. The exhibition is enhanced with a soundscape by pioneering musician and composer, Brian Eno.

Rick Lowe, The Arc within the Arc a Museo di Palazzo Grimani until November 24

American artist Rick Lowe's first solo exhibition in Italy was inspired by the historic architecture of the Palazzo in which it is located, a rare example of Tuscan-Roman Renaissance architecture in Venice. The vibrant works, created with acrylic paint and paper collage on canvas, they evoke the infrastructure, the cartography and the experience of moving through Venice and its waters. Without directly representing specific places, these works are imbued with the spirit of the city and its unique cartography, its abstract forms channeling the relationships between its streets, canals and bridges. They evoke the experience of getting lost, which happens to all visitors to Venice.

Eva Jospin, jungle a Fortuny Museum until November 24

It is displayed on the ground floor of the glorious 15th century Gothic Fortuny Museum, Eva Jospin's incredible immersive installation is made of cardboard, plant elements and fibers, metal pieces and fabric. His works are mysterious, almost magical, recreating a world that is at the center of his interests: landscapes, trees, plants, branches, leaves, geological formations, pieces of vegetation and architectural structures. The large installation at i carry del Museo Fortuny is an artificial “forest” that, once crossed, gives the feeling of losing the sense of time and space, of being in an undefined and disorienting “other place”.

From Ukraine: Dare to dream a Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Until August 1

Presented by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, 22 artists and collectives weave a tapestry of stories and hopes growing in the shadow of global conflicts: Kateryna Aliinyk, Allora & Calzadilla, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Fatma Bucak, David Claerbout, Shilpa Gupta, Oleg Holosiy, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Dana Kavelina, Nikolay Karabinovych, Lesia Khomenko, Yana Kononova, Kateryna Lysovenko, Otobong Nkanga, Wilfredo Prieto, Oleksiy Sai, Anton Saenko, Fedir Tetianych, Anna Zvyagintseva and Yama Zvyagintseva Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy. One of the most striking pieces is an organ created by Zhanna Kadyrova from the fired missiles used by Russia to bomb Ukraine. The artist collected shells from the Kiev region and placed them on the instrument. During the exhibition, the musicians will perform Russian classical music compositions with this instrument.

Martha Jungwirth, Herz der Finsternis at Palazzo Cini, until September 29

Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth takes on Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel heart of darkness, as a starting point for his recent work. The German title of the exhibition refers to Conrad's book, which Jungwirth read as a youth and explores the darkness and brutality of European colonialism in Africa. After visiting the Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, a building built for the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, the tale returned to Jungwirth's mind and these paintings are the result. Known for a palette that inhabits a corporeal and sensual register of fleshy pinks and reds, the unexpected greens and lush oil tones of her latest work refer to the dense green landscape of the central African rainforest, which is vividly described detail a heart of darkness

Ydessa Hendeles, Grand Hotel at Spazio Berlendis, Fondamente Nove, Until November 24

The Jewish ghetto of Venice is a suitable setting Grand Hotel, an installation by Canadian/Polish artist Ydessa Hendeles that explores themes of cultural identity, displacement, intergenerational trauma and loss, linking the past with the present. Born in Marburg, Germany, just after World War II, Ydessa Hendeles is the only daughter of Auschwitz survivors whose Jewish community in Zawiercie, Poland, was wiped out in the Holocaust. Their family history of persecution and migration forms the basis of this powerful show that includes a 1953 VW car, the year the car was launched in Canada, and Louis Vuitton luggage, two brands linked to Nazi Germany .

Pierre Huyghe, Liminal at the Punta della Dogana of the Pinault Collection, Until November 24

This deeply phantasmagorical show through the cavernous space of Punta della Dogana expands the French artist's long exploration of otherness, conceived here as the experience of reality in biological, chemical and technological entities that are not human . His work veers between cybernetics, neuroscience, science fiction, philosophy, and fantasy at best, making the complex issues involved in all of them appealingly intelligible.

Willem De Kooning, At Gallerie dell'Accademia, Until September 15

It's a pleasure to see abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning's sculptures, paintings and drawings in the Accademia's grand gallery, as his work has rarely been exhibited in Italy since it was first shown at the Biennale from Venice in 1950 as part of a group exhibition in the United States. pavilion The black and white drawings, made during a stay in Rome, influenced his paintings upon his return to America. Here are three examples of such paintings: A tree in Naples, town Borghese i Door to the river.

James Lee Byars and SEUNG-TAEK LEE Invisible questions that fill the air a Palazzo Loredan, until August 25, 2024

A Korean artist who should be much better known to Westerners is Seung-taek Lee (b. 1932) who is shown alongside American artist James Lee Byars (1932-1997). Although the two artists never met, this exhibition in a stunning library near the Academy Bridge illustrates fascinating parallels in their work, and even sometimes it is difficult to determine who did what. Both artists share a deep curiosity about history and the arts of the past. It is a magnificent spectacle with glittering sculptures of gold, wood and rope.

The Venice Biennale is open every day except Monday until Sunday 24 November 2024. Tickets: €30 or 3 days €40/weekly €50 Reductions €20/€16. Off-site exhibitions throughout the city are free and most run through the fall, but check dates.