Top 10 Works at the 2019 Venice Biennale Arsenale

Arianna Testino selects the ten most compelling works at the Arsenale during the 2019 Venice Biennale. Soham Gupta's 'Angst' presents twenty nocturnal photographs from Calcutta depicting victims of sexual abuse and violence. Ed Atkins' 'Old Food' is a dystopian installation evoking ruins, medieval atmospheres, and inedible food. Kahlil Joseph's 'BLKNWS' is a two-screen video installation mixing internet, social media, and news footage to critique the blurring of news and fiction. Hito Steyerl's 'This Is the Future' uses AI to create a garden of digital flowers and light impulses, with a video of Venice dissolving. Neïl Beloufa's 'Global Agreement' features Skype interviews with soldiers from various countries, viewed from uncomfortable seats that isolate each viewer. Terek Atoui's 'The Ground' presents musical instruments built from a five-year journey along China's Pearl River Delta. Zanele Muholi's 'Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness' offers black-and-white self-portraits confronting stereotypes and invisibility of the LGBTI community. Michael Armitage's paintings address political and social issues in Nairobi, using Lubugo bark cloth. Ryoji Ikeda's 'Data-Verse' is a video projection merging scientific data, mathematical models, and sound. Jimmie Durham, winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, closes the Arsenale with installations critiquing human-animal relations, featuring large mammal silhouettes from reused objects.