Bruce Nauman's Venice exhibition explores ageing through revisiting his 1968 video

Bruce Nauman's exhibition at Punta della Dogana in Venice presents 34 works that examine the body's ageing process through a revisitation of his earlier pieces. The show runs from 23 May to 9 January and features the 1968 video Walk with Contrapposto, where the young artist performs a Renaissance pose in a narrow corridor. This early work gains new meaning through the Contrapposto Studies series from 2015-16, which shows Nauman in his seventies repeating the same movements with visible physical strain. Curators Carlos Basualdo and Caroline Bourgeois have arranged conceptual video performances from the 1960s, including Bouncing in the Corner, No. 1, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk), and Lip Sync, creating what resembles an absurd minimalist theater. The exhibition includes For Beginners (all the combinations of thumb and fingers) from 2010, a two-channel projection accompanied by music from Soundtrack from First Violin Film. A new installation created for the show, Acoustic Wedge (Mirrored) from 2020, offers visitors a soundproof space on the top floor. Throughout the exhibition, Nauman confronts the physical realities of ageing while maintaining artistic agency, with works created in his New Mexico studio. The immersive installation features monumental projections that show the artist's body from multiple angles, sometimes with reversed colors.