What not to miss in Venice during the Biennale

For over 120 years now, the Venice Biennale has reigned as the undisputed, ultimate international art gathering. As the city plays host once again to an array of innovative and thought-provoking exhibitions from internationally renowned artists, we bring you the top 12 exhibitions that are on our must-see list this year.

The Biennale’s First Official Performance Programme

Coinciding with the Biennale’s central exhibition, titled May you live in interesting times, London-based Delfina Foundation is co-producing a performance series — supposedly the first in its history. The programme features performances from a diverse group of artists, including Paul Maheke, Zadie Xa and Vivian Caccuri, which deal with themes of identity politics through concepts of nationality, gender, and intersectionality. While the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, a former cinema turned venue for performing arts, will host a programme of scheduled performances that incorporate music, movement and visual art, the artists will also be conducting several performances in the open spaces of the biennale at short or no notice.

Performances take place in various locations from 8 to 12 May.

Get lost in a labyrinth of hair at the Icelandic pavilion

Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, who also goes by the pseudonym Shoplifter, will be representing Iceland with a large-scale, multi-sensorial exhibition made from hair – the artist’s signature material of choice. Arnardóttir has created a labyrinth of cavernous environments for an installation entitled Chromo Sapiens that invite visitors to consider the role of the artificial in everyday life. Both visually and sonically immersive, the installation features a specially commissioned audio backdrop by the Icelandic metal band HAM.

Public opening: 9 May, 8pm
Exhibition runs until 24 November 2019
Spazio Punch, Giudecca 800/o, Fondamenta S. Biagio, 800, 30133 Venice.

Post-war Korean painter Yun Hyong-keun finds refuge at the Palazzo Fortuny

MUVE Contemporaneo will hold a retrospective exhibition of the works of Yun Hyong-keun, one of the most important post-war Korean artists, at the Palazzo Fortuny. Hyong-keun’s abstract paintings feature broad strokes of dark pigments in natural tones of blue and brown. The works convey a sense of human anguish, reflecting the artist’s experiences of oppression and suffering during the Korean war, which contrasts with a sense of hopeful equilibrium that can be found in the natural world between water, earth and sky.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
Palazzo Fortuny, San Marco, 3958. 30124 Venice

Ghana moves beyond the postcolonial for its first participation at the Biennale

This year, the Venice Biennale will host the first Ghanaian Pavilion under the title Ghana Freedom. A group of six intergenerational Ghanaian and diaspora artists including John Akomfrah, David Adjaye and El Anatsui will present works that reflect on the country’s past while speculating on a future which moves beyond the postcolonial. The exhibit, named after the hit 1957 song by E.T. Mensah that celebrated the country’s independence from Britain, marks something of a historic moment for Ghana as the country is poised to stand alongside other established pavilions on the global cultural stage.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
Arsenale, Castello. 30122 Venice

Sean Scully returns to figuration at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore

Irish-born abstract painter Sean Scully will transform the historic Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore with a series of paintings, sculptures and drawings that reflect on loss, hope and spiritual faith. Inspired by the 16-century abbey itself, the canvases in Human feature colourful stripes that tie in with a symbolic ladder motif as manifested in the large-scale Opulent Ascension sculpture that reaches up to the central dome. His works express a desire for belonging and connection, uniting the core intellectual, emotional and spiritual elements of the human condition. After five decades, Sully returns to figuration with a triptych of la Madonna.

From 8 May to 13 Oct 2019
Isola di S.Giorgio Maggiore, 30133 Venice

Portugal revisits Italy’s history of craftsmanship

The Portuguese Pavilion is presenting a sculptural installation entitled a seam, a surface, a hinge or a knot by Berlin-based artist Leonor Antunes at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin. The exhibition compares and contrasts the historical craftsmanship of Italy, Japan and Portugal, building on in-depth research undertaken by the artist into the works of several key figures in the cultural history of Venice. Antunes reimagines and evaluates the use of everyday objects and materials and draws on inspiration from local makers to create sculptures that engage with the unique architectural design of the city itself.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
San Marco, 2893. 30124 Venice

Queer Wilderness at the Scottish pavilion

Representing Scotland is Charlotte Prodger, the latest Turner prize winner, who works with moving image, sculpture, writing and performance. The commission for Scotland + Venice will focus on Prodger’s ongoing exploration of the concept of “queer wilderness”. Understanding landscape and queerness to be intrinsically connected by themes of physical and imaginary boundaries, Prodger explores the nuanced borders of personal and communal identity in her video work on display at the Biennale.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
Arsenale Docks, S. Pietro di Castello, 40, 30122 Venice

Palazzo Grassi plays host to a major Luc Tuymans’ retrospective

The Biennale marks the first solo show in Italy for Belgian artist Luc Tuymans. The exhibition, entitled La Pelle, consists of works from the Palazzo Grassi’s own collections, international museums and works of Tuymans that span the past three decades as well as a site-specific work created for the Palazzo space. Considered to be one of the most influential artists in the evolution of contemporary figurative painting, Tuymans explores themes of communication, privacy and defining authenticity in the technological era.

Open now until 6 January 2020
Campo San Samuele 3231, 30124 Venice

Alban Muja digs into the personal and collective memories of Kosovo, two decades after its independence

For the fourth participation of the Kosovo Pavilion at Venice, artist Alban Muja will present a new video installation that explores both personal and collective memories of the Kosovan war and the experience of life as a refugee. Muja explores the nuanced relationship between aesthetics and politics and questions the role of the media in shaping narratives and national identities during times of conflict.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
Arsenale, Castello. 30122 Venice

Philippe Parreno brings relational aesthetics to the Espace Louis Vuitton

The Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia is displaying a new, experimental installation by French artist Philippe Parreno. The exhibition focuses on themes of memory and the passage of time, using a study of the development of microorganisms and flowers to convey a direct confrontation with temporality. The installation playfully interacts with visitors as light disappears and reappears without warning, highlighting surreal figures that are instantaneously created and dissipated by mirrors and phosphorescent wallpaper as synthetic sounds mimic the reactions of natural beings.

From 11 May to 24 November
Calle del Ridotto 1353, 30124 Venice

New Zealander artist Dane Mitchell remembers the disappeared

Dane Mitchell will represent New Zealand for this year’s Biennale with a project entitled Post Hoc. Designed specifically for the setting of Venice, Mitchell’s exhibition will take place at several locations, with the Palazzina Canonica — the Marine Institute’s former HQ — acting as the primary centre. The project focuses on the theme of “afterness” as the artist questions the connections between events and the extinction of spaces, words and beings, and explores how we react to the disappearance of things and environments around us. An automated audio listing obsolete objects will also be broadcast via industrially produced cell tree towers which become the passive transmitters of information.

From 11 May to 24 November 2019
Riva dei Sette Martiri, Castello 1364/A. 30124 Venice

Joan Jonas dives into a spirituality journey at at the new Ocean Space

The new Ocean Space gallery, housed in the former Church of San Lorenzo, which is supposed to mark the final resting place of Marco Polo, will host Moving Off the Land II by American artist Joan Jonas as its inaugural exhibition. The multimedia installation brings the art space’s focus on ocean preservation to the fore with new video, sculpture, drawing, and sound works that mark the culmination of the artist’s three-year-long research residency in aquariums around the world and exploring natural reefs off the coast of Jamaica. The works centre on the role of the oceans as a totemic, spiritual, and vital ecological core that affects and is equally affected by our existence on Earth.

Open now until 29 November 2019
For the Biennale, Jonas will present a one-time performing at 9pm on Tuesday 7th May.
Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Campo San Lorenzo, Castello. 30122 Venice

The Venice Art Biennale runs from 14 May until 29 November 2019. For a full programme of exhibitions and events see labiennale.org.