The Collateral Events series is a tradition of the Art Biennale in Venice, which takes place in parallel with the presentations of the national pavilions in the Arsenale and Giardini during each edition. Selected by exhibition curator Cecilia Alemani, the Collateral Events are an integral part of the main show, this year featuring 31 presentations.
This year’s events deeply engage with the present and reflect on the circumstances that define humanity today. There will be exhibitions that address issues such as information overload, environmental protection, global crises and conflicts and the search for spirituality. It is also an opportunity to meet a variety of artists through a very wide range of themes.
In previous parts of our Guide to the Most Interesting Events in Venice 2022 (part 1; part 2), we have already presented the national pavilions. This time we present you with a list of 10 collateral events that you should not miss!
Ewa Kuryluk
I, White Kangaroo / Io, il Canguro Bianco
Venue: Palazzo Querini, Dorsoduro 2691
Organizing institution: Starak Family Foundation
April 23 – November 27, 2022
Ewa Kuryluk, pioneer of textile installation, painter and photographer, is the author of an exhibition organised by the Starak Family Foundation as an official event of the 59th International Art Exhibition. Ewa Kuryluk’s works are a thoughtful and sensitive extension of the main theme of the exhibition, entitled ‘Milk of Dreams’. Through a deeply personal gaze, Kuryluk explores the potential of representational art to convey experiences of eroticism, mourning, memory, intimacy and belonging. The show was conceived as a cameo retrospective of autophotographs, paintings and installations by Ania Muszyńska, curator of contemporary art at the Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw.
In the upcoming issue of Contemporary Lynx 1(17)2022, which will have its premiere in mid-April, you will be able to read Dominika Tylcz’s interview with the artist. Ewa Kuryluk shared with us her inspirations, creative methods and reflections on art making.
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Ewa Kuryluk, Worried, 1976, © Ewa Kuryluk -
Ewa Kuryluk, With Brushes, London, 1977, © Ewa Kuryluk
Taiwan in Venice 20222
Impossible Dreams
Venue: Palazzo delle Prigioni
Commissioner: Taipei Fine Arts Museum
April 23 – November 27, 2022
The Taiwan Impossible Dreams exhibition reflects the presentation of significant Taiwanese cultural contexts and perspectives through a wide range of contemporary art that harshly and decisively responds to the urgencies of history, society and ordinary life. The word impossible in its title means ‘not yet possible’, and is a description of the status quo and a hope for better things, people and worlds to come. Like dreams created through trauma and bodies and spirits wandering through different realms, the project is a work of memory and conversation.
The exhibition consists of two parts: an archive display and public events, which are mutually interacting platforms. They are not separate curatorial initiatives, but gatherings that deal with memory (archive) and presence (event). The events will include a range of conversations and artistic interventions, while the archive will allow us to enjoy all forms of artistic practice from artworks to performances.
Lucio Fontana / Antony Gormley
Venue: Negozio Olivetti, Piazza San Marco 101
Organizing institution: Associazione Arte Continua
April 23 – November 27, 2022
The exhibition has been conceived and curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, one of the world’s leading researchers of Lucio Fontana’s work, and scientific consultant to the Foundation dedicated to the artist. The display is centred on the association of space and light that can be found in the work of both Lucio Fontana and Antony Gormley. The exhibition includes a selection of drawings made by Fontana between 1946 and 1968, as well as a series of drawings, manuals and models that cover all aspects of Antony Gormley’s research. The exhibition will also feature sculptures by both artists. The display will be held in an extraordinary space: the Negozio Olivetti, an architectural jewel which was completed in 1958, located in the porticoes of Piazza San Marco in Venice and designed by Carlo Scarpa.
Katharina Grosse
Apollo, Apollo
Venue: Calle del Ridotto 1353
Organizing institution: Fondation Louis Vuitton
April 23 – November 27, 2022
Katharina Grosse’s new installation will be presented at Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia at the 59th Venice Art Biennale. The work, entitled Apollo, Apollo, is a continuation of her expressive desire to make the painting practice a powerful contributor to the world’ s transformation.
The piece features a composite image of the artist’s hands painted on a mash of metal fabric in a black setting. The boundaries between representation and abstraction become blurred, symbolically showing the creative energy that comes from the artist’s hands and is transformed into a work of art. The surface of the installation is reflective, creating a Venetian mirror effect.
Rony Plesl
Trees Grow from the Sky / Gli alberi crescono dal cielo
Venue: Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione, Fondamenta Zattere ai Gesuati
Organizing institution: House of Art Ceske Budejovice
April 23 – November 27, 2022
Rony Plesl’s glass works will be displayed in the picturesque church of Santa Maria della Visitazione. The exhibition also coincides with the International Year of Glass 2022 and is curated by Lucie Drdova.
The installation, on display in Venice, consists of four large sculptures made using an unprecedented and unique glass casting technology that allows for the creation of enormous objects without any limitations. The work combines Czech heritage and history with contemporary concerns. The uranium glass from which the sculptures are made is a tribute to the technique of using radioactive uranium discovered in the Czech Republic.
The concept for the exhibition comes from architect Josef Pleskot. It is rooted in the Renaissance architectural canon of symmetry and perspective and combines with Rony Plesl’s aesthetic inclinations towards the Italian Renaissance, Baroque splendour, geometry and training in glass casting on the island of Murano. The installation explores the nature of humanity and its spiritual journey and alludes to the Franciscan thesis of the complementarity of nature and man.
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Rony Plesl, Trees Grow from the Sky, 2022, installation view, © Rony Plesl -
Rony Plesl, Trees Grow from the Sky, 2022, installation view, © Rony Plesl -
Rony Plesl, Trees Grow from the Sky, 2022, installation view, © Rony Plesl
From Palestine With Art
Venue: Palazzo Mora, Room 8, Cannaregio 3659
Organizing institution: Palestine Museum US
April 23 – November 27, 2022
This year, among the collateral events of the 59th Biennale is a first in the Western hemisphere presentation by the Palestine Museum in the USA at Palazzo Mora. The exhibition will introduce visitors to the history of Palestine through art and will include a presentation of 19 Palestinian artists living in both Palestine and other countries around the world. The exhibition will include installations, sculptures, a map of Palestinian history, photography and painting. Titled From Palestine with Art, the artists will “look to the present and the future” to showcase “the enduring beauty of Palestine and earning their deserved place in the global arts arena,” according to Nancy Nesvet, chief curator of the Palestine Museum in the US and curator of the exhibition.
Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained
Venue: Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello, San Marco 2810
Organizing institution: Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
April 23 – November 27, 2022
Parasol, a not-for-profit contemporary art gallery based in London, is organising an exhibition of eleven international contemporary artists. Featured artists include Darren Almond, Rana Begum of Hyetal, Oliver Beer, Julian Charrière, Si On, David Claerbout, Bharti Kher, Arghavan Khosravi, Teresa Margolles, Martin Puryear and Rayyane Tabet.
Through their diverse practices, the artists explore the common theme of entropy as a symbol of our present global situation. In art, the concept of entropy is explored through artworks that look at our everyday life and the universal negativity of the modern world, such as greed, disproportionate accumulation of wealth and environmental destruction. Entropy became known through the work of physicist Rudolf Clausius, who explained with the term unpredictability, randomness and disorder in a system. He also noted that entropy can reach dangerous levels if external conditions and information overload increase. By referring to Clausius’ notion, artists hope to open the door to the future by drawing attention to some important problems.
Lita Albuquerque
Liquid Light
Venue: Olivolo, San Pietro di Castello 59/C
Organizing institution: bardoLA
April 23 – November 27, 2022
Lita Alburquerque’s solo exhibition entitled Liquid Light is a multi-dimensional event that includes the world premiere of a film and installation, typical of Alburquerque’s artistic practice. The artist, a well-known member of the Light and Space and Land Art movements, is one of the few artists and humanitarians to explore a functional cosmology of the 21st century, in which ancient myths merge with the future.
The main character of Liquid Light is a female astronaut who spreads esoteric knowledge in the universe and who finds herself between the planes of imagination and Earth. Unable to transmit cosmic harmony to humans, she is forced to remain on the threshold between light and darkness, just like humanity today. The work will be presented as a multi-screen installation featuring the artist and, as dancer, choreographer and performer, her daughter Jasmine.
With hands signs grow
Venue: Palazzo Donà Brusa, San Polo 2177
Organizing institutions: Fundación Odalys, Signum Foundation
April 23 – November 27, 2022
The exhibition is the result of an initiative of the Odalys Foundation and the Signum Foundation, with the support of El Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira (Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Spain). They have enabled the realisation of an intervention project at Palazzo Donà, which includes several site-specific projects created for different rooms of the palace.
The creative process of the four young artists, Ruth Gómez, Nuria Mora, Daniel Muñoz and Sixe Paredes, has one thing in common: the desire to share their vision of the world through art. The interventions in the Palazzo space can therefore be described as a collection of micro-narratives from each artist’s personal territory. A territory that is public – now – but also unassailable, due to its historical burden.
Each artist was assigned a wall, floor or room of the Palazzo Donà. The artists created the exhibition while avoiding disturbing the structural or historical elements of the palazzo.
Future Generation Prize 2021 @Venice
Future Generation Art Prize@Venice is a Ukrainian project participating in the official collateral events program of the 59th Art Biennale. Aziz Hazara from Afghanistan was awarded the Grand Prize of the 6th Future Generation Art Prize. The jury also awarded three special prizes, whose winners were: Agata Ingarden from Poland, Mire Lee from South Korea and Pedro Neves Marques from Portugal. All the shortlisted artists will take part in the Future Generation Art Prize 2021 @ Venice.
Guide To The Most Interesting Events In Venice 2022 Here’s the Guide to Biennale di Venezia 22.
This year 8 new countries are entering the official Biennale programme for the first time in 2022. These countries are Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
Here’s the Lynx’s second part of the subjective guide to help you plan your visit to Venice this year.
