May is a very busy month in Venice. Starting from the Art Biennale vernissage week, the most exciting exhibitions of the year pop-up all around the city. The concentration of art events is so high this month, that it’s actually really difficult to choose. Collateral Events of the Biennale, as well as the main exhibitions in Arsenale and Giardini deserve a separate mention. But here are the main exhibitions in the museums, that should’t be missed!
Learn more about Oh So Arty in Venice here!
I.
Exhibition: Luogo e Segni (Place and Signs)
Artists: Etel Adnan, Berenice Abbott, Giovanni Anselmo, Lucas Arruda, Hicham Berrada, Louise Bourgeois, Charbel-joseph H. Boutros, Constantin Brancusi, Nina Canell, Vija Celmins, Tacita Dean, Edith Dekyndt, Liz Deschenes, Trisha Donnelly, Simone Fattal, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn, Ann Veronica Janssens, Lee Lozano, Agnes Martin, Julie Mehretu, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Philippe Parreno, Alessandro Piangiamore, R. H. Quaytman, Carol Rama, Lala Rukh, Stéphanie Saadé, Anri Sala, Rudolf Stingel, Sturtevant, Tatiana Trouvé, Wu Tsang, Robert Wilson and Cerith Wyn Evans
Venue: Punta della Dogana
Dates: March, 24th until December, 15th, 2019
The show brings together over one hundred works, by thirty-six artists, that establish a particular relationship with their urban, social, political, historical, and intellectual settings. These works are set up in relation to pieces that have marked the history of exhibitions at Punta della Dogana since its opening in 2009. The works perfectly fit in the big and unusual exhibition space of the museum and keeps the visitor curious till the end of the exhibition.
II.
Exhibition: Jannis Kounellis
Artist: Jannis Kounellis
Venue: Fondazione Prada – Venice
Dates: May, 11th until November, 24th, 2019
'Jannis Kounellis', curated by the legendary Germano Celant, is a major retrospective dedicated to the artist following his death in 2017. This project brings together more 70 works from 1958 to 2016, from both Italian and international museums, as well as from important private collections. The show explores the artistic and exhibition history of Jannis Kounellis, establishing a dialogue between his works and the eighteenth-century spaces of Ca’ Corner della Regina.
III.
Exhibition: Time, Forward!
Artists: Rosa Barba, Aleksandra Domanović, Valentin Fetisov, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Daria Irincheeva, Alexandra Sukhareva, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Adam Linder, Haroon Mirza, Trevor Paglen, Walid Raad, James Richards, Kirill Savchenkov, Where Dogs Run.
Venue: V-A-C Zattere
Dates: May, 11th until October, 20th, 2019
'Time, Forward!', a new project by Omar Kholeif, Maria Kramar and V-A-C Foundation, seeks to question the notion and function of time and how it relates to new forms of consciousness, action and sight in the twenty-first century. With artistic production at its very core, V-A-C Foundation has commissioned 13 new works, some site-specific, by emerging and internationally acclaimed artists for 'Time, Forward!'. The artists all met in Venice in May 2018 to activate a collaborative dialogue intertwining their ideas and they were asked to imagine and suggest strategies to cope with the accelerated digital time.
Click here to book an Oh So Arty tour in Venice!