Venice's Biennale Offsite Exhibitions Explore Magic, Sound, and Neuroscience

Oliver Beer's installation Little Gods (Chamber Organ) transforms found vessels into musical instruments at Venice's Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello. Part of the Parasol Unit group exhibition Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained, the work features a 24-hour performance based on Erik Satie's 1893 Vexations. Angela Su's Arise, representing Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale, presents embroideries of black hair and the film The Magnificent Levitation Act of Lauren O (2022), exploring levitation and countercultural politics. Fondazione Prada hosts Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea, curated by Udo Kittelmann with Taryn Simon, displaying neuroscience artifacts alongside new stories by 32 authors including Salman Rushdie. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, examining the movement's occult interests through works by Giorgio de Chirico, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, and others. This exhibition will travel to the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany later this year. Kurt Seligmann's 1955 painting The Alchemy of Painting depicts the artist as wizard, while Wolfgang Paalen's Magnetic Storms (1938) uses fumage techniques. Leonor Fini's Portrait of the Princess Francesca Ruspoli (1944) and Remedios Varo's Celestial Pablum (1958) further explore magical themes.