Pinault’s Venice

Julie Mehretu at the Palazzo Grassi

At the Palazzo Grassi, curator Caroline Bourgeois led us on a guided visit through "Ensemble," the most comprehensive exhibition of Julie Mehretu's work ever showcased in Europe. Curated in collaboration with the artist, this exhibition spans 25 years of Mehretu's prolific career, featuring over fifty paintings and prints, including her recent works. 

"Ensemble" includes 17 pieces from the Pinault Collection alongside significant loans from international museums and private collections. This exhibition also highlights the work of some of Mehretu's closest artist friends—Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Robin Coste Lewis, Paul Pfeiffer, and Jessica Rankin—creating a rich dialogue between their works and Mehretu's.

Rather than following a chronological order, the exhibition offers a visual journey through Mehretu's artistic evolution, providing insight into her creative process and the continual renewal of her practice. The presence of her friends' works emphasizes common themes and shared inspirations, challenging the notion of the isolated artist and highlighting a deep interconnectedness.

Pierre Huyghe at the Punta della Dogana

Close friend of the Board Emma Lavigne guided us on a visit through the Punta della Dogana’s exhibition "Liminal," created by Pierre Huyghe in collaboration with curator Anne Stenne, as it showcases major new creations from the artist alongside works from the past decade. 

Huyghe, known for exploring the relationship between the human and non-human, designs his works as speculative fictions that reveal new ways of understanding the world. He views fictions as “vehicles for accessing the possible or the impossible—what could be or could not be.” 

At the Dogana, Huyghe transforms the space into a dynamic, evolving environment. The exhibition exists in a transitory state, inhabited by both human and non-human entities. These entities continuously form and reform their identities, influenced by both visible and invisible events within the exhibition.

For Huyghe, the exhibition is an unpredictable ritual, where new possibilities emerge and coexist without hierarchy.