Experts were alerted by the local government to looting near the northern Peruvian town Zaña and quickly moved to the area before any destruction occurred, a press release from the Field Museum in Chicago said.

In June, the team began studying the Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas archaeological site. They excavated a 33-foot square plot of land at a depth of six feet, where ancient walls formed from clay and mud were identified.

“It was so surprising that these very ancient structures were so close to the modern surface,” Luis Muro Ynoñán, a research scientist at the Field Museum who led the team, said in the release.

Further digging revealed one section of a large temple. According to Ynoñán, “one of the most exciting things” was a small theater “with a backstage area and a staircase that led to a stage-like platform. This could have been used to perform ritual performances in front of a selected audience.”

Flanking one of those staircases was elaborately engraved mud panels featuring a bird-like creature. Perhaps more importantly, they resemble depictions of mythological creatures dating to the Initial Period (2,000 BCE to 900 BCE).

“The Initial Period is important because it’s when we first start to see evidence of an institutionalized religion in Peru,” Ynoñán explained. The find, he continued, “tells us about the early origins of religion” in the area.

Several large murals were also found painted on the walls. Pigment samples from these works can also be used to help with identifying the age of the site using radio carbon dating.

“We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes, and now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world,” said Ynoñán.

These discoveries predate the country’s most well-known archaeological site, Machu Picchu, by approximately 3,500 years. Machu Picchu was an ancient city built by the Inca Empire in the 15th century CE. The site also predates the pre-Inca Moche and Nazca cultures.

“We don’t know what these people called themselves, or how other people referred to them. All we know about them comes from what they created: their houses, temples, and funerary goods,” Ynoñán added. “The people here created complex religious systems and perceptions about their cosmos. Religion was an important aspect of the emergence of political authority.”

More than 50 artworks were donated for the 19th edition of the event by contemporary artists including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Allison Katz, Emma McIntyre, Shota Nakamura, and Marina Perez Simao. The ArtCrush Gala, slated for August 2nd, is the museum’s largest annual fundraiser, generating support for the museum’s exhibitions and educational programs. In celebration of the Aspen Art Museum 45th anniversary, the artists for the first time have been invited to retain up to 30% of the proceeds from their works sold during the auction. 

“As an artist-founded institution, artists are centered within all we do, and the fulfilment of our mission depends on their trust,” Nicola Lees, the museum’s director, said in a statement shared with ARTnews. “This year’s outstanding ArtCrush auction is a testament to the remarkable artists and supporters within our community…and we invite artists to retain a portion of the proceeds of their donated works, thereby promoting continuity, equitability, and sustainability. It is a policy we will be proud to implement long into the future.”

In the lead-up to the gala, the ArtCrush 2024 Auction Exhibition will be on display at the museum starting July 17. For the first time, the museum is partnering with Design Miami to include an array of design works in the auction, broadening the scope of the event. 

Christie’s, the museum’s auction partner, will conduct two auctions for the event. The first will be a live auction during the gala, led by Adrien Meyer, Christie’s global head of private sales and co-chairman of Impressionist and modern art. The second auction will take place virtually, with online bidding opening on Christie’s website on July 25. 

The new, 360-foot-high museum is currently under construction and will be located in the Royal Arts Complex in King Salman Park. The building’s design is by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill.

The Saudi Museums Commission announced the appointment of Fischer in a press release on July 11, calling the flagship museum “a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia’s cultural renaissance” and part of the commission’s commitment to establishing state-of-the art institutions.

Fischer’s appointment and the new museum are part of several initiatives aimed at expanding its arts and culture sector while shifting the country’s reliance on oil. In addition to the $10 billion King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) development in central Riyadh, Saudi cultural initiatives include the city-wide art festival Noor Riyadh and the Diriyah Biennale, the most recent of which opened in February. The city has also been chosen for World Expo 2030 and the FIFA World Cup in 2034.

Fischer stepped down as director of the British Museum last August after the institution announced that more than 1,500 items from its collections were lost, stolen, or damaged. Fischer was initially expected to depart earlier this year. However, whistleblower Ittai Gradel said that he had alerted Fischer and other senior museum officials about the thefts in 2021. While Fischer initially claimed that he took Gradel’s allegations “seriously”, he later withdrew them and said he held responsibility as director for the British Museum failing to “respond as comprehensively as it should have”.

Firefighters isolated the blaze on the cathedral, formally titled Notre-Dame de Rouen, to its spire. They quelled the situation in just over an hour, though the sight of smoke billowing from the beloved structure drew comparisons to the infamous 2019 inferno of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which is set to reopen in December. 

According to city officials, the fire was caused by a tarp covering the Notre-Dame de Rouen’s spire, which has been under renovation since 2017 restoration. The spire, named after Jean-Antoine Alavoine, a 19th-century architect, has been surrounded by scaffolding for several weeks.

The cathedral, located about 70 miles northwest of Paris, was evacuated, and no significant damage was caused to the structure. The Ministry of Culture said the fire was caused by “mishandling by workers,” Le Figaro reported.

No casualties were reported and the structure did not sustain significant damage. 

Jean-Benoît Albertini, prefect of Seine-Maritime, said in a statement: “We are dealing with a very high-value heritage asset. An inventory is under way of the works that could be affected by secondary water run-off. We may have to protect some works.”

Rising some 495 feet into the air, the cast iron spire is the tallest of its kind in France. The cathedral was a frequent source of inspiration for Claude Monet, who painted it several times under shifting light, making Rouen a popular destination for fans of Impressionism. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the movement in Paris, with several tours stopping in Rouen for a look at the cathedral. 

In the 1960s, art dealers and publishers Aimé and Marguerite Maeght decided to create a private foundation that would showcase their collection, based on models they had seen in the United States. They were encouraged by Cubist artist Georges Braque who saw in the project a way for them to cope with the loss of their son Bernard, who died of leukemia in 1953. The first of its kind in France, the Fondation Maeght opened in July 1964. At its inauguration, then minister of culture André Malraux said, “This is not a museum, but a place made from love and for the love of art and artists.”

Today, the museum is home to some 13,000 objects, including 2,000 works by Joan Miró (the largest collection in France), as well as site-specific installations by Braque, Pierre Tal-Coat, Marc Chagall, Pol Bury, Germaine Richier, and Alberto Giacometti, whose sculptures fill the courtyard.

Closed on and off for the past seven months, the Fondation Maeght reopened its long-awaited expansion last month. “We had the idea for the expansion in 2004. It was what my grandfather wanted, but we could not find the right person for the job,” said Isabelle Maeght, the Maeghts’ granddaughter, during a press conference.

Designed by Paris-based firm Silvio d’Ascia Architecture, the new section adds 5,005 square feet to the museum’s footprint, without disturbing the original architecture by Josep Lluís Sert, who also built Miró’s studio in Mallorca. Instead, d’Ascia chose to dig four extra galleries under the existing building; the largest of which lies below the Giacometti courtyard. (They are only visible from the Chemin de Rondes, which runs behind the museum.) The largest one lies below the Giacometti courtyard.

“This is an extension project by subtraction,” d’Ascia said during the press preview. “As an architect it is important to know when to set one’s ego aside, especially in the face of an invisible project. I had to adopt a silent approach not to disrupt the foundation’s already perfect balance.”

These new underground galleries overlook a pine forest and the Mediterranean Sea, thus keeping alive the dialogue between art, nature, architecture that served as the foundation to the Maeghts’ vision for their museum.

Adrien Maeght, 94, the Maeghts’ son and current president of the foundation, added, “The basement rooms designed by Silvio d’Ascia have brought the site into the 21st century.”

The expansion will now allow the foundation to display its permanent collection (downstairs in the expansion) alongside temporary exhibitions (upstairs in the original building), like its current one for Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. The new “Galerie de la Bibliophilie” opens the renovated building, showcasing selections from the 45,000 books in the foundation’s collection. Down a dozen steps are paintings by Pierre Soulages, Jean Paul Riopelle, Jean Messager, Fernand Léger, and others. The final room is dedicated to recent acquisitions, including a figurative painting by Hélène Delprat, who will be the subject of a solo show at the foundation by next spring.

The budget for the expansion project amounts to €5 million, including €1 million from Adrien Maeght and €500,000 each from the French state, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, and the Alpes-Maritimes department. The Dassault family also gave €1 million, through their “History and Heritage” fund, managed by the grandchildren of Marcel and Madeline Dassault who were friends of the Maeghts and attended the foundation’s 1964 opening. The company Triverio, which oversaw the original building’s construction 60 years ago, participated as corporate sponsors. “Without friendship this foundation would not even exist,” Isabelle Maeght said several times throughout the preview.

The theme of friendship also played a role in the Bonnard-Matisse exhibition, as both artists were friends with the Maeghts. “Bonnard and my father first met in Cannes in 1936 through a lithograph to be printed,” Adrien Maeght writes in the exhibition catalog. Bonnard then introduced Aimé Maeght to Matisse in 1943, but they only became close after Matisse and Marguerite randomly met in a doctor’s waiting room; “a man sat down next to her and asked her to pose for him,” and she soon became his “active agent.”

Today, about 40 drawings of Marguerite by Matisse remain; several of them are featured in the new collection hang. “At the age of fourteen,” Adrian continues in the catalog, “I had the privilege of attending one of these posing sessions and of making an eight-minute film—the only document I know of showing Matisse drawing.” Also on view is Matisse’s Le Buisson (The Bush), which hung above Bernard’s bed during his illness.

Featuring both artist’s landscapes and visions of Saint-Tropez’s light, self-portraits and several portraits of their recurring models, the exhibition mostly avoids pairing works by Bonnard and Matisse side by side. That’s intentional, according to the show’s curator, Marie-Thérèse Pulvenis de Sévigny, a former conservator at Nice’s Musée Matisse. The focus here is on the Maeghts and their relationship to the artists: Bonnard encouraged them to open a gallery in Paris, and Matisse was chosen for the inaugural show in 1945. “What matters here is the synergy between the three, which served as a springboard for the foundation,” she said.

Qiao Space was founded in 2015 by Qiao Zhibing, who has appeared on the annual ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list each year since 2013. Qiao is also the founder of Tank Shanghai, a private museum that has welcomed international dignitaries and art world luminaries when they have visited Shanghai and the extended West Bund area.  

For the past decade, the West Bund has been known for its groundbreaking private museums, art galleries, and artists’ studios. ShanghArt, one of China’s earliest galleries for contemporary art, has been closed, as have Don Gallery, Aike Gallery, Part Group, and artist Ding Yi’s studio.

For now, Tank Shanghai is safe, since it is on the other side of the road (near the Huangpu River) and has a relatively long-term agreement with government-managed enterprises. That institution, along with two other private museums, the Long Museum and the Start Museum, as well as the West Bund Museum, form a “cultural corridor at a relatively minimal level,” according to industry insiders.

Qiao Space was known for showcasing works by contemporary artists such as Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang, and Zhang Enli. Unlike some of the other resident galleries, it did not hold a closing event. However, artists and arts enthusiasts visited the site during its closure and demolition, documenting its ending with photographs and videos.

Speaking to ARTnews via phone from Shanghai, Qiao said, “This happened rather suddenly. We were just informed in March that the whole area needed to be shut down so we only had three months to process this development.”

Given the suddenness of the decision, the Chinese entrepreneur and night club owner is still considering whether he wants to reopen Qiao Space in a new physical space. Currently, Tank Shanghai has “a lot of space” to hold exhibitions, he said, and Qiao Space’s next exhibition will be held there.

Shanghai- and Beijing-based independent curator Evonne Jiawei Yuan noted, “It’s indeed a pity to see this demolition of at least five art institutions in one block at West Bund, including two collectors’ spaces and three commercial galleries, which were all of the pioneering generation boosting the development of this art zone a decade ago along with some leading architects’ offices and private museums.”

Last year saw the Yuz Museum, previously a key attraction in the West Bund, relocate an hour away from downtown Shanghai, as well as the permanent closure of the Shanghai Center of Photography. The Art Tower was sold to tech titan Alibaba, which is set to use the premises as part of its Shanghai headquarters.

In interviews with ARTnews, industry insiders said that, during the past decade, the West Bund area has faced significant changes, with the government pushing out policies such as rental discounts to attract galleries, museums, and artists. However, in recent years, this policy has shifted, and more efforts have been made to cultivate the area as a zone of technology and finance, with a special focus on AI and big data.

“The local government enterprises changed their strategy and withdraw the preferential policy of letting out spaces on the art industry at low rates due to the downcycle of the real estate market,” Yuan said. “Actually, all the spaces got notices a few years ago that they would have been removed one day and it finally happened this year.”

Mathieu Borysevicz, founder of BANK Gallery, said, “Artists and art spaces have been the catalyst for gentrification worldwide and Shanghai has been no exception. In fact, the history of contemporary arts in Shanghai has been plagued with nomadism from the outset. Gallery centers and studio enclaves seem to relocate every five years or so. China’s maxim of certain uncertainty rules supreme.”

Nonetheless, Qiao remains optimistic, currently considering how to embrace the changes of the local and global art scene while creating and supporting relevant and timely contemporary art.

“This indicates the general environment is changing—we just need to get used to it,” he said. “You cannot change the environment, you need to adjust yourself to the environment. I believe in the creation and energy of art.”

THE HEADLINES

ASPEN’S GRASP. Known for winter sports and other outdoor recreation, Aspen, Colorado, has become increasingly celebrated as an art destination, reports The Art Newspaper. The Aspen Art Week brings together collectors, curators and artists in a culture festival co-ordinated by Aspen Art Museum. This summer, the Aspen Art Fair (29 July-2 August) joins in with a debut at the high-profile Hotel Jerome, in the city center. About 30 exhibitors and projects—from Los Angeles (Carlye Packer, Casterline Goodman), New York (Miles McEnery, Nancy Hoffman) and abroad (El Apartamento from Havana and Madrid, Galerie Gmurzynska from Zürich, Perrotin from Paris)—are in the art fair’s lineup. Admission to the event costs $30 per day, except for those statying at the hotel who get complimentary passes. “It’s really important to us to be part of the citywide cultural conversation year round,” said Becca Hoffman, the director of the fair.

TO RETURN OR TO LOAN? Objects from London’s British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum are on loan at the Manhyia Palace Museum in the center of Kumasi, Ghana, while Los Angeles’s Fowler Museum has transferred ownership of seven items, reports The Art Newspaper. The UK loans include gold items, soul-washers’ badges, a figure of an eagle and a symbolically charged peace pipe, as well as the important ceremonial sword known as the Mponponsuo. There are also seven items from the Fowler Museum on view. Most of the returned items are colonial loot, seized by British troops during the Asante wars. A few others were legitimately acquired, not in battle. Ownership of the seven Fowler items has been formally transferred to the Asantehene, who is now free to use the regalia for ceremonial purposes. The BM and V&A objects, however, are required to be treated as artworks. The UK museums are returning material as three-year loans, with the option of a three-year extension.

THE DIGEST

Dr. Robert Boulay, who devoted his life to identifying Kanak works for the world’s most prestigious museums, including Paris’s Quai Branly, has died at the age of 80 years old. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Collectors Andrée and Gérard Patt have given the town of Audincourt, in the Franche-Comté region, 236 works of modern and contemporary art. The retired couple, who started amassing their treasures in the early 2000s, aquired their first paintings from a gallery in Megève. Their donation includes pieces by Salvador Dali, Pierre Alechinsky, Roberto Matta, Lucio Fontana, Arman, Hervé Di Rosa, Jean Messagier… [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Seven artists with connections to Los Angeles, including contemporary conceptualists Glenn Kaino (b. 1872) and Charles Gaines (b. 1944), were commissioned to bridge sports and culture, by creating works for the Intuit Dome, an indoor arena under construction in Inglewood, California. [The New York Times]

An extremely rare vinyl record by the Sex Pistols has been sold by record specialists Wessex Auction Rooms for a record-breaking price. The controversial single God Save the Queen was released in the 1970s. About 25,000 records were withdrawn from sale after a backlash to lyrics describing the monarchy as a “fascist regime”. A few copies remained in circulation, including the one that sold for £24,320. [BBC]

Linda C. Harrison got the profile treatment from Tiffany Dodson in Harper’s Bazaar, the director of the Newark Museum of Art’s, one of the few African-Americans leading a major art museum. She assisted the institution in becoming more inviting to residents of the New Jersey city. [Harper’s Bazaar]

THE KICKER

LOONEY TURN OF EVENTS. Sydney artist Philjames’ oil on lithograph “Jesus Speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem”, depicting Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters, was removed from the Blake Art Prize exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Center, after fierce criticism hit the artist and gallery on Friday, just two days before the eight-week exhibition ended. The biennial award recognizes contemporary artworks that explore spirituality and religion, and draws talents from all beliefs and cultural backgrounds. However complaints suddenly broke out online. Some protesters, who see the work as an insult to Christianity, have threatened the museum and its staff, including volunteers, with violence. [The Guardian]

The data is detailed in an online interactive chart that compares unemployment and underemployment rates, as well as the early- to late-career median wages across popular college majors. Also added for comparison is commiserate data of people without college degrees. As of February 2024, art history majors faced an 8 percent unemployment rate and a 62.3 percent underemployment rate, despite having the highest level of education among the creative majors featured in the report, with 43.8 percent also earning graduate degrees. 

Fine arts majors finish in close second place with a 7.9 percent unemployment rate, but enjoy marginally brighter field placement with a 55.5 percent underemployment rate. 

On the other hand, performing arts majors come through at a 5.5 percent unemployment rate, but lead in underemployment out of the included creative studies fields, at 65.3 percent. Graphic designers, while primarily only holding bachelor’s degrees, according to NYFED, had the lowest underemployment rate in the creative sector at 33.7 percent.

Industrial engineering, construction services, and medical technician majors, and various engineering tracks, meanwhile, enjoy the highest job placements, and minimum six-figure median salaries by mid-career (ages 35 to 45, per the NYFED).

Data-wise, it’s been a dispiriting few months for aspiring creatives: The NYFED report follows a survey published in May by Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) that found the majority of artists in New York state experience financial insecurity, despite the arts and culture sectors accounting for 7.4 percent of New York’s economy. CRNY launched its program in 2021 to provide a monthly guaranteed income and jobs for New York state artists, more than half (57.3 percent) of whom participated in its study self-reported earning less than $25,000 the previous year. (Nearly 86 percent earned under $50,000.) Additionally, 45.5 percent of respondents said they relied on gig work and temporary employment.

“Fundamentally, our economy doesn’t view artists as workers,” CRNY executive director Sarah Calderón told Hyperallergic upon the publication of the study. “For this reason among others, there is no wage protection, paid—or even affordable—healthcare options, or any other elements of the social safety net that are afforded to other classes of workers.

“We need to establish that art is labor, and we need artist-centric solutions to improve the lives and livelihoods of artists,” Calderón added.

This time it’s because several artworks in the show, which the museum claimed were by Pablo Picasso, are actually fakes. It turns out they were painted by artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele, the wife of Mona’s wealthy owner, David Walsh.

Mona came clean to the Guardian Australia on Wednesday after suspicion was raised by the newspaper and the Picasso Administration.

Kaechele curated “Ladies Lounge,” which opened in 2020 and involved the female-only audience being pampered by performing male butlers and served champagne. The fake Picassos were moved from the lounge to a ladies’ toilet cubicle in the museum after a court ruled that the exhibition was discriminatory and must admit men. The case was brought by an Australian man who claimed that the show discriminated his gender because it violated Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act.

In court, Kaechele said the exhibition was “a response to the lived experience of women forbidden from entering certain spaces throughout history.” She also reportedly said she was “delighted” upon learning that Mona was being sued.

Before owning up to the forgeries, Mona said that Kaechele inherited the artworks from her great-grandmother, whom she claimed was once a lover of Picasso. One of the paintings is a replica of Luncheon on the Grass, After Manet (1961) by the Spanish painter.

Kaechele also admitted that other works displayed in “Ladies Lounge” were not genuine, including “antique” spears and a rug that the museum said belonged to Queen Mary of Denmark.

She wrote in a blog post that she forged the paintings when the installation was created because “it had to be as opulent and sumptuous as possible… if men were to feel as excluded as possible, the Lounge would need to display the most important artworks in the world – the very best.” Kaechele added that she “knew of a number of Picasso paintings [she] could borrow from friends, but none of them were green, and [she] wished for the Lounge to be monochrome.” She also wrote she didn’t want to pay for the insuring real Picassos.

At the end of her post, she apologizes to the Picasso Administration, which manages the late painter’s estate. “I am very very sorry for causing you this problem,” she wrote in French.

WAIT AND SEE. The cultural sector in France was relieved, when the final results of the parliamentary election were announced on Sunday, reports The Art Newspaper. The left-wing New Popular Front won 182 seats, the highest number, but failed to win an overall majority, leaving France to face a hung parliament. The threat lies in Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which came third after President Emmanuel Macron‘s centrist coalition. Before the election, one thousand doctors, scholars and researchers urged the public to “reject the obscurantism”, followed by 800 artists and culture leaders who called on voters “to preserve the France of the Enlightenment”. The French committee of art historians warned against the “xenophobic hold up of cultural heritage” and the union of art gallery owners said its “values are not those of the National Rally”. The art world, which is heavily dependent on public support, raised concerns about potential cuts to state subsidies by a National Rally government. For now, no-one really knows what will happen next.

THE TRUMAN SHOW. Actor Jim Carrey, known for his onscreen work in Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, moonlights as an artist. As a collector, he has amassed some significant piece of fine art and modern design. On July 25 Bonhams L.A. will sell some of the items that Carrey has acquired over nearly 30 years. The 35 lots include Adam Kurtzman’s 2004 work Pair of Hands (estimate: $2,000–3,000) and Martin C. Herbst’s 1965 stainless-steel work, Sphere ($3,000–5,000), a lily pad-shaped coffee table by Paula Swinnen ($6,000–8,000), and a cloud-shaped table by Joris Laarman ($60,000–80,000), evocative of the actor’s taste for organic forms. There is also a group of 1960s designs by French sculptor Philippe Hiquily. A console co-designed with Jean-Claude Farhi ($20,000–30,000), an armchair crafted out of brass and steel ($20,000–30,000), and a rug dotted with hummingbirds, handwoven with metallic thread and silk by Alexander McQueen ($15,000–20,000).

THE DIGEST

Claudine Colin Communication, France’s leading arts and culture communication agency created 1990, has been acquired by the US-based marketing firm Finn Partners, joining the company’s Polskin Arts division in its art-related interests. Its team includes 25 people and its clients Les Rencontres d’Arles, the Louvre-Lens, Lyon’s Contemporary Art Biennial. [The Art Newspaper]

Ten duos, each formed by an artist and an art critic, have been awarded the Ekphrasis grant, including Nicolas Boulard & Camille Viéville, Lucie Douriaud & Hélène Meisel, Collectif Grapain & Jil Gasparina, Ludovic Landolt & Estelle Nabeyrat… The texts written on each artist will be published monthly in Le Quotidien de l’Art in 2025. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Christie’s has announced that an “emblematic work” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, unseen in public since 1931, will be offered at auction this fall. The work, made with grease pencil and graphite on cardboard, is a preparatory study for the lithograph “Divan Japonais”, and is estimated to fetch between  $2.7 million and $3.8 million.” [Barrons]

Thomas Austin, a professional engineer and retired U.S. Army Colonel, recently began his appointment as Architect of the Capitol (AOC), taking over from interim AOC Chere Rexroat who took power in February 2023 after the 12th AOC, amid controversy over his personal use of a taxpayer-funded vehicle and questions about his adherence to agency policies. Austin is now responsible for preserving and maintaining 18.4 million square feet of buildings and 570 acres of campus grounds throughout Washington, D.C. [The Architect’s Newspaper]

At the Vatican Francesca Peacock came across a by the late 14th-century Florentine painter Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni featuring a pregnant Madonna, which seemed odd at first, because most familiar depictions of the Virgin don’t show her pregnant. Could this be because it doesn’t depict a clear biblical story? A couple of theories intertwine. [Apollo]

THE KICKER

ACTION! American actor Willem Dafoe has been appointed the Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale theater department for 2025 and 2026, which was founded in 1934 as an independent department of La Biennale di Venezia, following the departments for art (1895), music (1930) and cinema (1932). Its previous directors include Renato Simoni, Luca Ronconi, Franco Quadri, Carmelo Bene and Lluís Pasqual, and it is programmed yearly alongside major cultural events like the Venice Film Festival. “Theater taught me about art and life. I worked with the Wooster Group for twenty-seven years, and I have collaborated with great directors from Richard Foreman to Bob Wilson. The direction of my Theatre program will be charted by my personal development. A sort of exploration of the essence of the body.” [La Biennale]