Museums Unearthed, Biennales in the Crosshairs

Vienna’s Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien has a new director, and she’s already outlining how she wants mumok to feel more connected to the present. Artnet News talks with Fatima Hellberg—previously director at the Bonner Kunstverein—about the push-pull at the heart of museum work: preserving art while also “activating” it so it can connect with the outside world. Hellberg describes this as a productive tension between communicating and protecting. Her program launches in June, beginning with Kate Millett’s newly acquired 1972 installation Terminal Piece anchoring the collection display, plus an installation by scenographer and costume designer Anna Viebrock, and an exhibition, open studio, and event space by Tolia Astakhishvili.

Staying in Europe, the Venice Biennale has become a funding fight in Brussels. The Art Newspaper reports that at least 34 Members of the European Parliament signed a letter demanding the suspension of all European Union funding to the Venice Biennale Foundation if Russia’s participation proceeds—though Politico reported that 37 MEPs have signed. Addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, Kaja Kallas, and Constantinos Kombos, the letter argues that Russia, under extensive EU sanctions, should not take part in an event financed by European taxpayers, and says the Russian pavilion should not be used for activities organized by Russia, physically or digitally. The signatories warn Russia’s presence would weaken EU credibility and betray Ukraine.

That same Biennale dispute is also unfolding in ARTnews, with extra emphasis on what lawmakers want next. ARTnews reports that 37 European Parliament members signed a letter calling on the EU to cease all funding to the Biennale amid Russia’s plans to mount its first pavilion since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The letter, obtained by Politico, says the EU has granted around 2 million euros to the Biennale over a three-year period. Beyond funding cuts, the lawmakers call for a formal review of the Russian Pavilion’s participants and organizers and ask for “targeted restrictive measures” against individuals or entities credibly linked to the Russian government, propaganda apparatus, or support for the war effort. The Biennale has said it cannot oust a nation and frames the show as a place of dialogue.

Across the Pacific, Hong Kong is preparing a major solo exhibition for Anne Imhof. The Art Newspaper says the German artist, known for dark and elaborate performance pieces, will open her first solo exhibition in Asia at the Tai Kwun culture complex, running 26 September to 3 January 2027. Tai Kwun calls it an “ambitious” presentation bringing together a significant survey of key works alongside a new commission, with performance, image, sound, and architecture converging into immersive encounters. Further details will be announced later, according to a spokesperson. The show will be overseen by independent curator Ying Kwok and curator and consultant Tiffany Leung. Imhof won the Golden Lion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 for Faust at the German Pavilion.

Back to the United Kingdom, a Guardian investigation is forcing museums to reckon with what they hold. Hyperallergic reports that public records inquiries found 241 UK museums with significant collections of human remains, totaling more than two hundred sixty three thousand items. Of these, twenty eight thousand nine hundred fourteen items are confirmed to originate from outside Europe, including former British colonies—raising concerns among experts. The report says eleven thousand eight hundred fifty six of the non-European remains originated in Africa, and nearly ten thousand came from Asia. Two institutions held the majority: the Natural History Museum in London and the Duckworth Collections at Cambridge. Toyin Agbetu of University College London called the scale “breathtaking” and argued informed consent from descendants is essential. The Guardian also found some institutions couldn’t specify holdings because items were unidentified and stored in cardboard boxes.

Now to New York, where a surprising discovery is tangled up in a development threat. Artnet News reports a hidden Underground Railroad passage was discovered at a New York museum, and the passage now faces potential risk due to development pressures. The headline identifies the site as a museum context, and the core issue is straightforward: the discovery has historical significance, but protecting it may prove difficult when building plans and preservation collide. The story, as presented, centers on the urgency of safeguarding a newly uncovered passage connected to the Underground Railroad and the possibility that nearby development could jeopardize it. It’s the kind of find that turns a local institution into a flashpoint—forcing decisions about what gets protected, how quickly, and by whom, once hidden history becomes public.

Staying in the Americas, a Mexico City exhibition shut down after antisemitic harassment. Artnet News reports that an Israeli artist’s show closed following harassment described as antisemitic. The article’s headline frames the closure as a direct response to that harassment, placing the gallery and the exhibition in the middle of a hostile campaign that escalated beyond criticism into intimidation. The main takeaway is the abrupt end of a public presentation because of targeted abuse, and the chilling effect that can have on cultural spaces trying to host international artists. In practical terms, the closure becomes part of the story: when harassment is intense enough, the ability to simply keep a show open—welcoming visitors, staff, and the artist safely—can be compromised.

Over at the Whitney Biennial, Precious Okoyomon’s long-anticipated installation is finally on view—after a last-minute change of plan. ARTnews reports that Okoyomon’s room-filling work, Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid (2026), was originally meant for the lobby, but Okoyomon and the curators pulled it shortly before press opening because the space didn’t work for the piece. Okoyomon said the issue wasn’t the disturbing content, but that they needed more room and the objects “needed to be lower” so viewers could truly engage. The installation opened Wednesday on the museum’s eighth floor. It features around 50 stuffed animals and racist dolls suspended by nooses, and is an expanded, readapted version of a work shown in 2025 at Kunsthaus Bregenz.

And while we’re talking about systems shaping culture, Hyperallergic looks straight at AI. In “How to Survive AI,” the outlet reviews two Sundance documentaries: Valerie Veatch’s Ghost in the Machine (2026) and Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (2026). The piece notes Sundance 2026 featured heavy AI programming and that the festival was the last to be held in Park City. Veatch’s film traces what it calls the eugenicist origins of AI research, using archives and interviews with over 30 scholars and journalists, and argues “artificial intelligence” is a marketing term grounded in a racist tradition of intelligence research. Roher and Tyrell take a more personal, explanatory approach, including interviews with CEOs like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman, and end with action items.

Finally, ARTnews takes us to Shanghai, where “The Great Camouflage” is on view at the Rockbund Art Museum through April 26. The show was co-curated by X Zhu-Nowell and Kandis Williams, and it began with shared interests in overlapping revolutionary histories and cross-cultural solidarities, including the Afro-Asian alliances symbolized by a photo of W.E.B. Du Bois with Mao Zedong. Along the way, the curators centered women whose contributions were overshadowed by the men they married—Shirley Du Bois, Eslanda Robeson, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Suzanne Césaire, and Grace Lee Boggs—bringing Black feminist thought to the fore. Rather than a didactic history display, it’s contemporary art processing revolutionary histories, with works by artists including Pope.L, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Onyeka Igwe, Cauleen Smith, Wang Tuo, and Hao Jingban.

That’s today’s download—links to all ten stories are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more art-world news you can actually use, and until then: Chinga la migra

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