"Where Are We Going?". Opere Scelte dalla Collezione François Pinault

Renovated and restyled by architect Tadao Ando, Palazzo Grassi in Venice reopens its doors to the public with the extraordinary inaugural exhibition "Where Are We Going?" Selections from the François Pinault Collection.

This reopening and restyling has been overseen by François Pinault, President of Palazzo Grassi S.p.A., who commissioned celebrated Japanese architect Tadao Ando to design the new interiors of this 18th-century palazzo. The 3,000 square meters of public spaces have been dramatically enhanced. Known for his elegant brand of minimalism, Ando's design provides an ideal context for the display of a range of modern and contemporary art works.
Entitled "Where Are We Going?" Selections from the François Pinault Collection, the exhibition presents a focused selection of highlights from François Pinault's collection, curated by Alison M. Gingeras. Marking the first public unveiling of François Pinault's collection, the exhibition will concentrate on the collection's post-1945 holdings and will span seminal movements such as New York School and European Abstraction, Arte Povera, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Pop Art as well as various incarnations of Pop's current progeny.
The exhibition draws its title from the question that Paul Gauguin famously asked at the dawn of Modernism, and that Damien Hirst infamously appropriated as the title of one of his iconic sculptures in 2000. Mirroring the inquisitive and challenging nature of the art works featured in this exhibition, "Where Are We Going?" strives to respond to our present condition, our contemporary culture and the future of the world we live in. These concerns have always preoccupied advanced artists and form the core of François Pinault's collecting philosophy.
Featuring approximately two hundred art works by over fifty artists, a mere fraction of François Pinault's collection, this exhibition presents numerous monographic ensembles by post-war "masters" such as Mark Rothko, Piero Manzoni, and Donald Judd, mid-career veterans such as Damien Hirst, Pierre Huyghe, Cindy Sherman and Maurizio Cattelan, as well as by a relatively younger generation of artists such as Urs Fischer, Piotr Uklan´ski and Rudolf Stingel. The breadth, depth and quality of the works in this exhibition demonstrate François Pinault's singular engagement with some of the most influential and thought-provoking artists of our times.

Edited by Alison M. Gingeras & Jack Bankowsky, the catalogue of the Venetian exhibition includes essays by Scott Rothkopf, Jeffrey Weiss, Alison M. Gingeras, David Rimanelli, Francesco Bonami, Daniel Birnbaum, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Tim Griffin, Germano Celant, Richard Flood, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Robert Storr, David Anfam, Yve-Alain Bois, Nancy Spector, Robert Rosenblum and Thomas Lawson.