May You Live in Interesting Times

For the 58th edition of the International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, artistic director Ralph Rugoff has invited around 80 leading contemporary artists from around the globe to present works that challenge our understanding of society, and ask how art can help us to make sense of an unsettled and unsettling world. The 90 national pavilions on view alongside the two-part main exhibition – which is split between the Giardini and the Arsenale – include four newcomers to the Biennale: Ghana, Madagascar, Malaysia and Pakistan. Find out more from La Biennale di Venezia’s website.

Preview the exhibition below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Sing, Unburied, Sing (J.W.) (2018), Julie Mehretu. Photo: Tom Powel; courtesy the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and White Cube, London; © Julie Mehretu

Walled Unwalled (2019), Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Photo: Mathilda Olmi © Centre d’Art contemporain, Genève; courtesy the artist, Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement and Maureen Paley, London

And We Begin To Let Go (2013), Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Photo: Jason Wyche; courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner; © Njideka Akunyili Crosby