French-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira discusses her Tate Britain Commission, a new work that serves as a love letter to African cinema. The piece explores themes of resistance to nostalgia and learning from the past, drawing on Sedira's personal heritage and cinematic influences.
Giuli compra tutto! Il Ministero della Cultura vuole prendersi anche Il Teatro delle Vittorie di Roma e Palazzo Labia a Venezia?
Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli is pursuing an aggressive acquisition campaign for cultural properties. After high-profile purchases including Antonello da Messina's *Ecce Homo* and Caravaggio's *Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini* (€30 million), the Ministry has now expressed interest in acquiring Rome's Teatro delle Vittorie and Venice's Palazzo Labia—both part of a real estate portfolio being sold by state broadcaster Rai. The Ministry also recently bought Verona's historic Cinema Astra (with a €7.5 million restoration plan) and Naples' Teatro Sannazzaro after a fire.
The National Gallery of Canada has unveiled the exhibition "Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup" for the Canada Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026. The site-specific installation reimagines the pavilion's architecture as a Wardian case, a precursor to the terrarium used to transport plants across the British Empire, featuring a custom pool with giant Victoria water lilies. The artist replaced the facade with glass panels, making the plants visible from outside, and the installation is framed by additional sculptural works. The exhibition is curated by Kim Nguyen and accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.
A new documentary titled "Avedon" (2026), directed by Ron Howard, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The film offers a conventional tour of the life of famed photographer Richard Avedon, relying on talking-head interviews and behind-the-scenes anecdotes rather than delving into the artistic process or the deeper implications of his work. The review criticizes Howard's approach as hackwork, noting that the documentary misses opportunities to explore Avedon's insights on image culture, his influence on cinema, and the technical evolution of his photography.
Brook Hsu's exhibition "The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)" at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin presents a series of works that interweave references to architecture, film, literature, and animal carcasses. The show's title alludes to Mies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona Pavilion and the sculptor Georg Kolbe, whose work was originally installed there, while the list of pieces—ranging from paintings like "Daybreak:Orange Tree" to works dedicated to figures such as Anne Wiazemsky and Pasolini—creates a dense, associative network of cultural and personal memory.
A new permanent home for animation cinema, the Cité internationale du cinéma d'animation, will open in Annecy, France, on June 19, 2025, just before the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Housed in a restored 19th-century horse stable (haras) listed as a historic monument, the 54-million-euro project includes a 450 m² permanent museum, a 332-seat cinema, temporary exhibition spaces, educational workshops, artist residencies, and image-education facilities. The city of Annecy contributes 30 million euros, with additional funding from the Haute-Savoie department, the state, and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Designed by architecture firm dd.a and landscape architect Philippe Deliau, the center aims to be a hybrid, year-round hub for animation, blending heritage, creation, and transmission.
Valie Export, the pioneering Austrian feminist artist known for her provocative and confrontational performances from the 1960s onward, is the subject of a reflective essay by writer and academic Hettie Judah. The article revisits Export's radical works such as *Hyperbulia* (1973), where she crawled naked through electrified wires; *From the Portfolio of Doggedness* (1968), in which she led a man on a dog lead through Vienna; and *Action Pants: Genital Panic* (1969), where she walked through a cinema with exposed genitals. Judah draws on her own interviews with Export, who died in 2023, and discusses the artist's manifesto demanding that women use art to reshape consciousness and achieve liberation.
Clive Chijioke Nwonka reviews Akinola Davies Jr.'s film *My Father's Shadow* (2025), a semi-autobiographical story of two adolescent brothers traveling through Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian presidential elections. The film, selected for the Cannes Official Selection, employs a metaphysical narrative style rooted in the Nigerian oral tradition, blending literal and spiritual worlds to explore diasporic identity, memory, and cultural preservation.
Sam Jacob's essay in ArtReview uses the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film 'EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert' (2026) as a springboard to explore the cultural and technical implications of digital restoration. The film, a spinoff from Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic, draws on 59 hours of previously unseen footage from Elvis Presley's 1970 and 1972 Las Vegas performances, recovered from Warner's Kansas salt-mine archive. Using Peter Jackson's Park Road Post technology—including Machine Assisted Learning (MAL) for demixing audio and video—the damaged, fragmented material has been digitally scanned, reconstructed, and enhanced to 4k resolution with 12-channel sound, presented in IMAX cinemas.
Galerie Bernard Bouche in Paris is presenting 'Lusco-fusco', a new exhibition by Portuguese photographer Jorge Molder, opening March 28. The show features two interrelated photographic series, 'Dorothy' (black and white) and 'Cesare' (color), which extract and rework still images from Robert Wiene's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920) and Victor Fleming's 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939). Molder halts the cinematic narrative to explore stillness, ambiguity, and the motifs of masks, dreams, and multiple identities through self-portraiture.
The Oxford Festival of the Arts is bringing a major visual art component to its 2025 program, featuring free exhibitions by world-renowned artists across multiple venues in Oxford city centre. Highlights include James Gemmill's cinematic paintings at St John's College, a collaborative installation by Chinese artist Qu Lei Lei and Caroline Deane at OVADA examining humanity and geopolitics, a retrospective of Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Dubovyk's 'White Bouquet' series, and a charitable project supporting Ukrainian children through art. All exhibitions are free and require no booking.
The Palm Beach County Cultural Council highlights three deals for MOSAIC (Month of Shows, Art, Ideas and Culture) in The Palm Beaches. Ballet Palm Beach presents 'Giselle' at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Audubon Everglades hosts 'Flyway: A Conservation Cinema Series' at Lake Worth Playhouse, and the Boca Raton Museum of Art offers buy-one-get-one-free admission throughout May.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled 'Costume Art,' which explores the intersection of fashion and art history. The installation view, captured by designboom, showcases how garments and accessories are presented as artistic objects within the museum's galleries, blurring the boundaries between costume design and fine art.
NEW INC, the New Museum's cultural incubator, has announced the full schedule for DEMO2026, a three-day art, design, and technology festival running from June 3–5 at the New Museum's newly expanded OMA-designed building on the Bowery. The festival features keynote speakers including multimedia artist Lawrence Lek, cultural historian Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, artist and Ojas sound system founder Devon Turnbull, NTS Radio founder Femi Adeyemi, and artist-engineer Xin Liu. Public programming includes demonstrations, performances, workshops, and talks showcasing projects by 39 current NEW INC members, with a Track Showcase on view through June 10. This marks the first edition of DEMO held in the New Museum's expanded space since its reopening.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, will launch its summer exhibition season on June 13, 2026, featuring five new displays. The season includes solo shows by artists Stephen Andrews, Oliver Husain, and Austin Henderson. Andrews presents 'The sum of the parts,' a display of 125 drawings examining media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Husain offers an immersive video installation titled 'I ♥ Snail,' exploring the history of IMAX cinema. Henderson, the RBC emerging artist in residence, debuts works investigating queer history and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Canada through his family history. A free public event with curator remarks, artist-led tours, and a complimentary shuttle from OCAD University in Toronto will mark the opening.
A new documentary titled "The Final Cut" explores the life and artistic journey of Lucio Fontana, the Italian-Argentine artist famous for his slashed canvases (Concetti Spaziali). Produced by Good Day Films and Nexo Studios, directed by Andrea Bettinetti and narrated by Miriam Leone, the film will screen in Italian cinemas on May 25–27 as part of the "La Grande Arte al Cinema" season. It features archival footage, interviews with artists such as Doug Wheeler, Antony Gormley, Carsten Höller, Alfredo Jaar, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Heinz Mack, and scholars Luca Massimo Barbero and Daniela Alejandra Sbaraglia, highlighting Fontana's revolutionary approach and his first immersive installation, "Ambiente Spaziale a luce nera" (1949).
Riscoprire Jorge Luis Borges come critico d’architettura. A 40 anni dalla morte
The article commemorates the 40th anniversary of Jorge Luis Borges's death, reflecting on his legacy as a writer and his lesser-known role as an architectural critic. It highlights a 2025 book by Estela Canto, a close friend, which reveals Borges's personal fragility and contradictions, such as his love for popular cinema over classical music. The piece also explores Borges's fictional architectural criticism, particularly his 1967 work *Cronache di Bustos Domecq* co-written with Adolfo Bioy Casares, where he satirized functional architecture through invented pioneers like Adam Quincey and Alessandro Piranesi.
In Romagna c’è discussione attorno all’eredità artistica del Ventennio fascista
Recent developments in Romagna, Italy, have sparked debate over the artistic legacy of the Fascist era. The 102-meter-long Flight Mosaics at the former Aeronautical College in Forlì are now open to the public, and the Conad-Città di Forlì Auditorium, converted from a former GIL cinema, will inaugurate on May 13, 2026. Regional President De Pascale has announced initial funding to secure the Colonia Varese in Cervia, a Rationalist masterpiece, while long-awaited consolidation work has begun on the Casa del Fascio in Predappio, Benito Mussolini's birthplace. A 2010 plan to turn the Casa del Fascio into a cultural center documenting Fascism has stalled due to political changes and bureaucratic hurdles.
A new exhibition titled "Dante Ferretti. Con i miei occhi" has opened at the Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome, celebrating the legendary Italian set designer and costume designer Dante Ferretti. Curated by Raffaele Curi, the show runs until July 19, 2026, and features a collection of Ferretti's sketches, charcoal drawings, and collages that served as the foundational visual ideas for films by directors including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Martin Scorsese, Federico Fellini, and Tim Burton. The exhibition presents these preparatory works not merely as production tools but as autonomous works of art, tracing Ferretti's visual genealogy from Renaissance painters like Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio to contemporary cinema.
Miltos Manetas, a Greek-born artist, has adopted a life of Franciscan poverty as both a personal practice and an artistic project called "Francesco_2026." His work is featured in the exhibition "Vita minore. San Francesco e la santità dell’arte contemporanea" at Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto, curated by Gianni and Giuseppe Garrera. Manetas has also launched the tenth Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, inviting Saint Francis as the artist, using AI conversations and a monastery in the Venetian lagoon to create an informal community of "Fratelli e Sorelle" who follow a shared rule based on poverty, absence of preparation, and divine providence.
Mark Lubell has been appointed as the new executive director of the Sag Harbor Cinema, a historic theater in the Hamptons endorsed by Steven Spielberg. Lubell previously served as executive director of the International Center of Photography (ICP), where he oversaw the opening of its new campus on Ludlow Street in 2020. He brings experience from Magnum Photos and a background in fine art photography, and he aims to foster community connection through the cinema experience.
Baró Galeria presents 'Against Time', an exhibition of Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's still life photographs at its Next Door space in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. Opening on May 25, 2026, the show is part of the inaugural Mallorca PhotoFest, an international photography festival. The exhibition focuses on Olaf's small-format flower photographs made between 2006 and 2021, exploring themes of time, finitude, and photography as a trace of disappearance. An essay by Esmeralda Gómez Galera accompanies the show.
Cary Kwok's exhibition at Sessions Arts Club in London presents four new paintings created with support from Herald St, Cabin Studio, Jonny Gent, and David Southard. The works, rendered in acrylic and ink on paper, explore still lifes, silhouettes, and staged interiors inspired by 1980s visual culture, including interior design, cinematography, fashion editorials, and advertising. Featured pieces include *Eclipse* (2026) and *Anticipation* (2026), with the artist's signature subtly embedded in objects like jewelry and glassware. The show opens May 18 and is viewable by appointment or during dining hours, alongside a related wine label collaboration for the Sessions Arts Club Lost Wines Project.
Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have documented abandoned early 20th-century movie theatres across the United States, capturing the haunting beauty of their decline. These once-grand cinemas, converted from 1920s music halls and theatres, have been left as hybrid ruins due to the rise of television, streaming platforms, and individualized media consumption. The work is exhibited at Kyotographie 2026 in Japan until 17 May.
The Guardian reviews Aura Satz's art film "Preemptive Listening," which explores the cultural and political meanings of sirens as warning devices. The film features a drone shot of a siren in a residential area, a soundtrack by composer Laurie Spiegel, and commentary from British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla on sirens during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. It also covers sirens on Nakba day in Palestine, a US activist linking emergency vehicle lights to danger for Black women, clocks frozen at the time of the Fukushima disaster, and a Maori activist discussing environmental catastrophe. The reviewer finds the film's ideas interesting but notes it lacks coherence as a feature-length experience, suggesting it would be better suited to a gallery setting.
Over the weekend of the Cannes Film Festival, director Ron Howard premiered his documentary *Avedon*, which traces photographer Richard Avedon's rise from a working-class Jewish immigrant background to a defining chronicler of American culture. The film received a second life aboard the Renaissance superyacht with a party hosted by editor Graydon Carter, Ancient chairman and CEO Alexander Klabin, and Burgess chief executive John Beckett. Guests included actors Natasha Lyonne and Rosemarie Dewitt, photographer Jean Pigozzi, model Eddie Mitsou, Avedon's grandchildren Michael, Matthew, and Caroline Avedon, and producers Courtney Kivowitz, Sara Bernstein, Darcie Reisler, Dallas Rexer, Chris St. John, and Justin Wilkes. The after-hours cocktail allowed attendees to relive the film's most impactful scenes while mingling with the producers and the photographer's family.
Die 10 besten Venedig-Filme
Monopol magazine has published a ranking of the ten best films set in Venice, timed to coincide with the opening of the Venice Art Biennale. The list includes titles such as Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "The Honey Pot" (1967), and Kenneth Branagh's "A Haunting in Venice" (2023), highlighting how the lagoon city serves as a central character in action films, comedies, and love dramas.
À Chaumont-sur-Loire, d’incroyables jardins recréent des films culte
The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire in France has launched the 2026 edition of its Festival International des Jardins, themed around cinema. Participants including gardeners, landscape designers, and artists—among them actresses Sabine Azéma, Golshifteh Farahani, and Mélanie Laurent, and director Momoko Seto—have transformed small plots into living landscapes inspired by iconic films and cinematic genres, such as a vegetal Cannes Film Festival and a garden based on James Cameron's *Avatar* trilogy. The festival runs from April 22 to November 1, 2026, alongside the estate's ongoing 'Saison d'art' exhibition featuring works by Marc Desgrandchamps, Antonio Crespo Foix, and others.
A feature-length animated film adaptation of the young adult novel *Wildwood* is in production at LAIKA Studios, directed by Travis Knight. The story follows a girl named Prue who ventures into a magical forest called the Impassable Wilderness after her baby brother is carried off by crows, accompanied by her classmate Curtis. The film is based on an original story by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis, and features a voice cast including Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, and Angela Bassett. A behind-the-scenes featurette highlights LAIKA's blend of hand-built puppets, sets, and CGI, with particular attention to animating the bird characters of the Avian Principality. The trailer is released, and the film is scheduled for release on October 23.
Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova is making her U.S. museum debut at the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition introduces her multimedia works, which often explore Central Asian history, spirituality, and female identity, to an American audience for the first time.