Exhibitions

Koen Vanmechelen's first solo sculptural exhibition opens in Venice during the 61st Biennale, unfolding across three floors of Palazzo Rota Ivancich. More than forty new works explore what it means to coexist, from classical reinterpretations to hybrid animal forms, from bronze to glass. At its heart is a collaboration with Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour: the Wild Gene Festival becomes part of the exhibition's narrative, reminding us that creativity emerges through connection. The palazzo itself, shaped by centuries of time and transformation, breathes with this inquiry: what does it mean to truly exist together?

Since May 2026, a new permanent sculpture by Koen Vanmechelen has been installed in Dilsen-Stokkem: Future Fossil, created as part of Kunst aan de Maas. Situated along the Meuse, the work enters into direct dialogue with the river, its history and the communities that have lived alongside it for generations.

Intimacy is the space where we come closest to another and where we are most exposed. Why does nearness draw us in and unsettle us at the same time? What do we surrender when we let someone in, and what do we keep behind the door?

Glass is never innocent. It seduces, glints, cuts, shatters, preserves. What happens when artists stop treating this fragile material as decoration and start using it to carry tension, metamorphosis, loss?

With Art on the Maas: a travelogue, Z33 brings together the full trajectory of the large-scale initiative that brought art into the Maas Valley, tracing its evolution from initial ideas and temporary interventions to the permanent works now embedded in the landscape.

Koen Vanmechelen presents Cosmopolitan Chicken Project: Mechelse Cara Blanca (CCP31) at Galería Plaza del Gato. Following its predecessor LIMINA: CCP30 at the Chillida Leku Museum in the Basque Country, the journey of the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project continues deeper into Spain.