9 exhibitions not to be missed outside the Biennale

With the opening week now behind us and the 2025 edition of the Biennale officially open to the public since last Saturday, May 10, Venice confirms its role as one of the international capitals of contemporary art, also (and especially) for everything that happens outside the Biennale. For those coming to the city attracted by the pavilions of the Giardini and the Arsenale, it is worth remembering that during these months Venice comes alive with collateral projects, independent exhibitions, and special openings that offer the opportunity to discover an authentic and vibrant city, beyond the spotlight of the major international event.

Here, then, are the projects not to be missed outside the Biennale Architettura 2025.

to love and devour - Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation

The Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, founded in London in 2021 as an evolution of the Fiorucci Art Trust (established in 2010 by Nicoletta Fiorucci to support emerging art), opens a new exhibition space in Venice, in a historic building at 2826 Dorsoduro. The first exhibition, to love and devour, is a site-specific installation by Tolia Astakhishvili, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, designed in dialogue with the historic architecture of the building. To develop it, the artist lived and worked in the Venetian space during the early months of 2025, also involving other artists such as Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Zurab Astakhishvili, Thea Djordjadze, Heike Gallmeier, Rafik Greiss, Dylan Peirce, James Richards, and Maka Sanadze.

Ore streams: The Shape of Things to Come - Negozio Olivetti

The Shape of Things to Come, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, presents the work of Formafantasma at Negozio Olivetti: design furnishings created from electronic waste to reflect on the environmental and social impact of technology. An evolution of Ore Streams, the project denounces – through a series of objects, documentary videos, and 3D animations – practices such as planned obsolescence and proposes an alternative vision inspired by the Olivetti philosophy, where ethics, sustainability, and durability are core values. Design and responsibility intertwine to imagine a more conscious future.

Tatiana Trouvé: The Strange Life of Things - Pinault Collection Palazzo Grassi

The Pinault Collection dedicates its largest solo exhibition to Tatiana Trouvé and her first major exhibition in Italy, curated by Caroline Bourgeois and James Lingwood. With new sculptures, monumental drawings, and site-specific installations, the artist transforms Palazzo Grassi into a journey between inner and outer worlds. The works, both recent and unpublished, dialogue with loans from museums, private collections, and the artist's archive. Among dreams, memories, and visions, Trouvé constructs a space-time labyrinth where forms flow between two and three dimensions, evoking a suspended time between past, present, and future.

AMA Collection - AMA Venezia

AMA VENEZIA, a new contemporary art space founded by Laurent Asscher, opened in April in Venice, housed in a renovated former industrial plant. The inaugural exhibition presents works from Asscher's AMA collection, which includes internationally renowned artists such as Avery Singer, Brice Marden, David Hammons, Elizabeth Peyton, Florian Krewer, Jacqueline Humphries, Jeff Koons, Jordan Wolfson, Lauren Halsey, Mohammed Sami, Refik Anadol, Rudolf Stingel, Salman Toor, and Wade Guyton. The exhibition project explores the possibilities of the contemporary sign, embodying AMA's mission: to transcend traditional art boundaries and offer a dynamic platform for experimentation and dialogue.

Gäelle Choisne: Temple of Love. Coeur - Scuola Piccola Zattere

Temple of Love. Coeur is the exhibition of Gaëlle Choisne at Scuola Piccola Zattere. Inspired by Roland Barthes' Fragments of a Lover's Discourse, the artist explores the spiritual connection between body and domestic space, transforming the environment into an ecosystem where each room represents a chakra. Starting from the heart (coeur), the exhibition develops into an itinerary that creates a circular and immersive flow, in which the artist's works dialogue with a selection of Haitian artists' works from Jean-Marie Drot's collection – creating an affective, welcoming, and multicultural space. The installation thus becomes an act of care and poetic resistance.

Bruno Alfieri: Publishing and Magazines for Contemporary Arts and Architecture - Mare Karina

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The exhibition, curated by Chiara Carrera and Mario Lupano at Mare Karina, explores the work of Bruno Alfieri, publisher, critic, and key figure in art and architecture publishing between 1948 and 1973. Active between Venice and Milan, Alfieri experimented with innovative editorial formats such as Quadrum, Zodiac, and Lotus, conceived as total works of art. The exhibition presents a previously unseen and temporary archive, bringing together materials never before assembled to tell the story of a hybrid and authorial editorial practice, capable of intertwining art, design, and visual communication.

otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua - Ocean Space

TBA21–Academy presents an exhibition curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel, marking the culmination of her three-year cycle as curator of the fellowship program The Current IV: Caribbean (2023–2025). The exhibition presents new commissions by artists Nadia Huggins (Trinidad and Tobago) and Tessa Mars (Haiti), with site-specific installations and large paintings. The exhibition highlights the power of improvisation and freestyle as aesthetic tools and strategies to transcend terrestrial and extractive perspectives of our planet, expanding ideas of what is possible in creating life-sustaining systems and challenging rooted notions of power.

Matteo de Mayda: An Entire Barena - Panorama

An Entire Barena – curated by CAMERA - Italian Center for Photography in collaboration with FAF Toscana (Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia) – is a photographic project by Matteo de Mayda presented at Panorama. Far from tourist routes, de Mayda constructs a visual mosaic that tells the story of the fragility of the Venetian barene, key yet vulnerable territories of the lagoon ecosystem. Interweaving current images with historical bird photographs taken by F. Coburn in 1890, the photographer invites a dialogue between present and past, encouraging reflection on human impact on the environment that surrounds us.

Mika Ninagawa with EiM: Interstice - Palazzo Bollani

INTERSTICE, curated by Eriko Kimura, marks the first European solo exhibition of Japanese photographer and director Mika Ninagawa, in collaboration with the collective EiM (Eternity in a Moment). Hosted at Palazzo Bollani, the immersive installation explores the concepts of boundary, transition, and overlap, creating a sensory experience that blends reality and fiction through images, lights, and sounds. With a visual poetry that unites pop aesthetics and traditional Japanese culture, Ninagawa and EiM offer a multisensory journey that explores the perception of reality. The flowers, protagonists of the exhibition, evoke universal emotions, inspired by the tradition of floral tributes in cemeteries. The exhibition is part of the anonymous art project, making its debut in Europe.