The 2024 Biennale is about to close: if you’re in Venice, don’t miss these exhibitions

After his last memorable participation in the 2019 Art Biennale with the touching and dramatic work Barca Nostra, Christoph Büchel returns to Venice, to the Fondazione Prada, with the project "Monte di Pietà." Starting from the history of the historic palace of Ca' Corner della Regina, which was the headquarters of Venice's Monte di Pietà until 1969, the artist delved into the study of the concept of debt as the basis of society and an instrument of power. Hence, the complex installation, which includes ancient and contemporary works and a selection of historical documents, is an opportunity for discussion regarding some of the central themes of contemporary history.

The exhibition Roberto Matta 1911-2002 at Ca' Pesaro celebrates the Chilean artist and architect with an extensive display of his works, including paintings, sculptures and drawings. A key figure in surrealism and precursor of modern aesthetics, Matta explored themes such as the unconscious, science fiction and political engagement. The exhibition, curated by Dawn Ades, Elisabetta Barisoni and Norman Rosenthal, follows a chronological path and opens with a monumental work such as Coïgitum (1972), a piece from the 1970s that highlights his innovative spatial and social vision.

In conjunction with Pierre Huyghe's major exhibition at Punta della Dogana, Julie Mehretu's canvases arrive in Venice for an extraordinary solo show, curated by Caroline Bourgeois in collaboration with the artist. The two floors of Palazzo Grassi offer a close look at more than sixty paintings and printmaking by the Ethiopian-American painter, created over the past twenty-five years. Mehretu's works will be flanked by works by other artists, either her friends or personalities who influenced her.

Le Stanze della Fotografia dedicates to Helmut Newton an exhibition curated by artistic director Denis Curti and Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, that celebrates the photographer's boldness and elegance, tracing his career with shots ranging from fashion to the female nude. Famous for collaborations with Vogue and fashion designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Newton revolutionized photography with giant photographs and storytelling, wrapping his works in mystery and references to painting and film. The exhibition, divided into six chronological chapters, bears witness to a legacy that influenced visual representation in the 20th century.

"Nebula "is the exhibition organized by the In Between Art Film Foundation, curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi, at the Ospedaletto Complex with the exhibition design by Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and Milan-based studio 2050+. It features eight new video installations specially commissioned for the occasion from Italian and international artists, including Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Saodat Ismailova, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado, and Diego Marcon. The idea of the project is inspired by the phenomenon of fog as a condition that reduces visual capacity, making it necessary to use different sensory tools to navigate.

Yoo Youngkuk was a pioneer of geometric abstract painting who left an indelible mark on the history of art in Korea. In the Fondazione Querini Stampalia's historical palazzo, a selection of paintings from the 1960s and 1970s traces the artist's relationship with nature in the exhibition "A Journey to the Infinite," curated by Kim Inhye. This exhibition is the most important ever dedicated to the Korean master ever outside his country, and aims to tell the story of Youngkuk's art also through archival documents, photographs, postcards and videos.

Over the past decade, Francesco Vezzoli has created a bridge between ancient art and contemporary culture, using media such as video, performance, and portraits. The exhibition Musei delle Lacrime at the Museo Correr in Venice continues this journey, placing his works alongside the museum's masterpieces. Here, Vezzoli reworks art history as something current, engaging in a dialogue between classicism and the present, with homages to religion, concepts of identity and authorship, inspired by Carlo Scarpa's work on Venetian museums.

While part of the art collection owned by American producer Swizz Beatz (and his wife Alicia Keys) is on display at the Brooklyn Museum, in an exhibition celebrating the idea of mutual support between artists, in Venice the project "Are We The Aliens_" features a collaboration between Belgian artist Arne Quinze and the American musician. In the church built to a design by Sansovino and completed by Palladio, Quinze's phytomorphic sculptures are joined by a sound installation by Swizz Beatz in a praise of nature's beauty that invites reflection on the transformative potential of humanity's reconnection with the natural world.

In the heart of Cannaregio, the deconsecrated Chiesetta della Misericordia hosts the Guggenheim Museum New York's Asian Art Initiative project, "Yu Hong: Another One Bites the Dust." New figurative and narrative paintings conceived in harmony with the location's architectural and cultural context by Chinese artist Yu Hong recount the arc of the human experience-birth, life and death-with an underlying existential dread running through the entire series. Through his exquisitely painted but somber compositions, Yu Hong offers a critique of the massive social changes due to globalization in China and around the world.

"The Spirits of Maritime Crossing "marks the directorial debut of Professor Apinan Poshyananda, artistic director of the Bangkok Art Biennale. In a spiritual odyssey from Venice to the Thai capital, the protagonist of the play is Marina Abramović who, through encounters with symbolic figures and visits to sacred places, becomes the embodiment of an apparition adrift in perpetual search for a balance of the mind.

Chris Ofili's exhibition Joyful Sorrow spans two venues: new paintings at David Zwirner in Paris and works on paper at Victoria Miro in Venice. Both explore Shakespeare's Othello, focusing on metamorphosis, love and the influence of the external on the inner self. His Venetian watercolors, titled Othello - Reflection, reflect the emotional complexity of the protagonist and include intertwined figures. Considered by the artist as self-portraits, they explore empathy toward the other, revealing a dialogue between inside and outside through carved and mirrored wooden frames.

The Palladian architecture of the Benedictine abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, located on the island by the same name, is home to Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere and her sculptures, specially conceived for the exhibition City of Refuge III. The exhibition, named after a Nick Cave song, revolves around three new main sculptural groups that interact with the function and symbolism of the sacred space. The theme of art as sanctuary and place of refuge is investigated in this series of installations, of which the Venice exhibition is the third stage, following the first two set in France and Germany.

South Korean artist Lee Bae brings to Venice an evocative experience focused on the connection between man and nature, portrayed through an exploration of a centuries-old ritual rooted in South Korean culture called "Moonhouse Burning." The artist makes visitors participate in this celebration through screenings, installations and works that transform the exhibition space into a representation of collective hope, inviting us to rediscover humanity's connection with nature and folk traditions, which are increasingly less considered in today’s world.

Eva Marisaldi, who has been working since the 1980s, is known for her ability to observe and translate the world into visual works that are difficult to classify, ranging from installations, sculptures, graphics and videos. With an eye on the private sphere, society and the environment, she creates micro-narratives in which analogies and contrasts prevail over narrative essentiality. The project for Casa Goldoni, inspired by theater and stage performance, occupies the entire space with works that mix fantasy, poetry and irony, exploring Goldoni's work.

The exhibition Ernest Pignon-Ernest. Je Est Un Autre by Ernest Pignon-Ernest, produced as part of the Foundation's Hors-les-murs program, is held in Louis Vuitton spaces in several cities, including Venice. His works, which decorate cities around the world, explore the concept of being foreign through graphic interventions that reveal local tensions. Two works dedicated to poets Anna Akhmatova and Forough Farrokhzad, created for the Biennale, welcome visitors, while a central image recalls Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The collaboration between Sanlorenzo - a world leader in luxury yachting - and Michelangelo Pistoletto and his Foundation brings to life the Third Paradise Quick Response project, curated by Cristiano Seganfreddo, which will be unveiled in conjunction with the opening of the 60th Venice Art Biennale. The installation, created in Sanlorenzo's shipyards, consists of three continuous circles representing the union of opposites and the synthesis of a dynamic balance between conflicting elements, with the purpose of taking humanity through the epochal challenges of the contemporary world. This event anticipates the launch of Sanlorenzo Arts Venice in 2025, a cultural and artistic hub, the restoration of which is curated by Piero Lissoni, destined to emerge as a landmark in Venice's cultural scene in the coming years.

On April 20, Palazzo Diedo - a new space dedicated to contemporary art by Berggruen Arts& Culture, which has been leading the restoration of the ancient Venetian palace in recent years - finally opens its doors to the public. On this occasion, the exhibition halls will host the Janus exhibition, featuring eleven original site-specific installations by internationally renowned artists such as Urs Fischer, Piero Golia, CarstenHöller, Ibrahim Mahama, Mariko Mori, Sterling Ruby, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, AyaTakano, Lee Ufan and LiuWei. Along with the exhibition, there will also be two special projects curated by The Kitchen New York, which brings a solo show by artist Rhea Dillon, and the Polaroid Foundation.

Pierre Huyge's largest solo exhibition ever is all to be discovered in Venice, March 17 through November 24, 2024, in the halls of Punta della Dogana. Curated by Anne Stenne, the exhibition presents many works in which the conditions and possibilities of coexistence and hybridization between different entities are explored. Visitors are invited to dive into the vision of the French artist, who looks at the context of the exhibition as part of a ritual in which new possibilities of relationship between its constituent elements can arise.