10 Exhibitions You Need to See at the 56th Venice Biennale

What is the Venice Biennale and why is everyone talking about it? – The Venice Biennale is largely considered one of the most important art exhibitions in the world. Located in Venice, Italy, the exhibition is sort of like the art world's Olympics - each country chooses a single artist as a representative and that artist is given a "pavilion" to show their work. This year, there are over 136 artists and 53 countries showing. There are also many satellite and pop up exhibitions.  Here are Autre's picks for the top exhibitions. 1. U.K. artist Sarah Lucas presents 'I Scream Daddio' for the British Pavilion 2. The late Mario Merz will be holding an exhibition, entitled 'Unreal City,' at the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia 3. The late, great Cy Twombly will have an exhibition entitled 'Paradise' at Ca'Pesaro 4. New York based artist Aurel Schmidt will be showing her series 'New Gods' at Cannaregio 5. Part of the unique Vanhaerents Collection will be on display for an exhibition entitled Heartbreak Hotel at the Zuecca Projects Space 6. Jonas Mekas: Internet Saga at the Palazzo Foscari Contarini 7. Artist Rob Pruitt's unique Flea Market in Venice will be on display at A Plus A gallery 8. Pamela Rosenkranz has been nominated by her country to exhibit at the Swiss Pavilion with an exhibition that averages European skin color 9. At the age of 78, Joan Jonas represents the United States at the 56th Venice Biennale with They Come To Us Without A Word 10. Frontiers Reimagined, a major group exhibition with 44 artists will be on view at Museo di Palazzo Grimani

Jonas Mekas at Serpentine Gallery

Jonas_Mekas_at_Serpentine_Gallery

The Serpentine gallery presents an exhibition of the artist's film, video and photographic works from throughout his remarkable and prolific sixty-year career. As part of the exhibition, Mekas is curating and hosting a very special evening event in the Gallery. The retrospective will be on view until January 27, 2012 at Serpentine Gallery. photograph by Hans Ulrich Obrist

Jonas Mekas: Reminiscences of a Displaced Person

James Fuentes gallery presents an exhibition of photographs by Jonas Mekas. Images out of Darkness recounts the years that Jonas Mekas and his brother Adolfas lived in Wiesbaden, Germany , in a displa ced persons camp. In 1944, a rrested by the Nazi’s a s they fled Lithuania, the brothers were placed in a forced labor camp where they worked in a machine factory.The brothers escaped and were detained near the Danish border where they hid on a farm for two months until the end of the war. After the war, they lived in displaced persons camps first in Wiesbaden and then in Kassel/Mattenberg. Between 1946-48 Mekas studied philosophy at the University of Mainz, the brothers immigrated to New York City in 1949 with assistance from the UN. Two weeks a fter his arrival in New York Jonas borrowed money to buy his first Bolex camera and began to record brief moments of his life. Mekas is considered a pioneer of diaristic cinema and a "god father to American avant-garde cinemat, his commitment to life as subject continues to this day and he has had exhibitions in major cultural institutions across the world. Images out of Darkness marks Jonas Mekas’ first visual essay. Jonas Mekas: Images Out Of Darkness, Images of A Displaced Person, Post War Germany 1945 to 1949 will be on view until October 28 at James Fuente Gallery, 55 Delancey Street, New York

Musique Plastique at Agnès B

Now open at Agnès B's Howard Street gallery an exhibition entitled Musique Plastique, a group exhibit "exploring the ongoing interaction between the visual arts and music." Curated by Jean François Sanz, the show will feature music-themed pieces by the likes of Jean Tobias Bernstrup, Hisham Bharoocha, Etienne Charry, Brian DeGraw, Daniel Johnston, Jonas Mekas, Thurston Moore, David Shrigley, Alan Vega, Ben Vida and Liz Wendelbo. Musique Platique is on view until August 25 at 50 Howard Street, New York, and be sure to head to the Agnès B gallery website to download a compilation by the artists involved. 

This Side of Paradise

From the pages of Jonas Mekas diary: “Unpredictably, as most of my life’s key events have been, for a period of several years in the late 60s and early 70s, I had the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with Jackie Kennedy’s and her sister Lee Radziwill’s families and children. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the untimely, tragic, death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition of life without a father. One of her thoughts was that movie camera would be fun for the children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the man to introduce the children to cinema. Jackie said yes. And that’s how it all began. I bought them a very easily operable 16mm movie camera, and even wrote a “mini-textbook” suggesting some simple movie exercises…The images in the exposition, with a few exceptions, they all come from the summers Caroline and John Jr. spent in Montauk, with their cousins Anthony and Tina Radziwill, in an old house Lee rented from Andy Warhol, for a few summers. Andy himself spent many of his weekends there, in one of the cottages, as did Peter Beard, whom the children had adopted almost like their older brother or a father they missed. There were summers of happiness, joy and continuous celebrations of life and friendships. These are ‘Little Fragments of Paradise.’ " Tomorrow night marks the opening of “This Side of Paradise,” an exhibition of photo prints taken from original 16mm film from Jonas Mekas’ celebrated film “This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography” (1999). The exhibition will mark the first time these rare and personal images of the Kennedy and Radziwill families are on view in NYC in their entirety. Opens September 24 at the Agnès B Gallerie Boutique - 50 Howard Street New York, NY.