“Ensemble” is the largest Julie Mehretu exhibition to date in Europe. Presented at Palazzo Grassi from the 17th of March 2024 until the 6th of January 2025, “Ensemble” is curated by Caroline Bourgeois, who is Chief Curator of the Pinault Collection, alongside Mehretu. The exhibition brings together a selection of more than fifty paintings and printmaking works that Mehretu has produced over the timespan of 25 years, including several paintings created between 2021-2024.
Presented over two floors of Palazzo Grassi, the exhibition unites 17 works from the Pinault Collection, as well as loans from international museums and private collections. The exhibition consists of works by some of the artist’s closest artist friends, with whom she has developed a powerful affinity over the years and with whom she has exchanged and collaborated. This exhibition allows viewers to explore Mehretu’s artistic practice while understanding how it came into being and how it is constantly renewed.
“Esemble” consists of pieces by Mehretu’s friends including Iranian-German artist Nairy Baghramian, Pakistan-American artist Huma Bhabha, as well as British conceptualist Tacita Dean and others where the artist enters into a rich dialogue with her own art. Beyond their formal differences, common concerns and shared driving forces become apparent, challenging the idea that the artist is self-sufficient and showing that, on the contrary, she is connected to others, to their thoughts and sensibilities. Their works inspire her and resonate with her own, with her way of looking at the world all the more since each of these artists, like Mehretu herself, experienced displacements such as leaving Ethiopia and Pakistan, that deeply shaped who they became, by force or by choice. Their participation in the exhibition is a testament to Julie Mehretu’s acute attention to these gradually woven relationships, to their seminal role and creative power.
The exhibition is accompanied by a visitor’s guide and a catalogue published by Marsilio Arte, Venice, with texts by Hilton Als, Caroline Bourgeois, Patricia Falguières, Mehretu, and two conversations, one between Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer and Lawrence Chua and another between Julie Mehretu and Caroline Bourgeois. The exhibition will also be enriched by a series of conferences and cultural events open to the public, that will bring light to Mehretu, the protagonists of the project, and explore its themes within the frame of the cultural programme of the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi. Among others, a conversation with Julie Mehretu and the artists of the “Ensemble” exhibition is scheduled on 20 March, and the performance “Archive of Desire” will be presented on 21 March. Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana will present a podcast dedicated to the protagonist of the exhibition Julie Mehretu, in collaboration with CHORA Media, from April 2024. The exhibition is realised in cooperation with K21–Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf) that will present it in 2025.
