Five Exhibitions to See in Europe this November

Leila Hekmat

Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany

15 September 2022 – 8 January 2023

Consisting of a site-specific installation, zine and performance, Leila Hekmat’s first institutional solo presentation, ‘Female Remedy’, affirms her reputation as a gifted director and exquisite maker committed to exploring societal definitions of madness: specifically, the connection between mental illness and women’s sexuality, beauty and even their well-being. The artist has transformed Berlin’s Haus am Waldsee into a hospital for what in the show’s accompanying literature she calls the ‘incurable experience of being Female’, and although the exhibition struggles to capture what precisely the malady might be amidst such a broad claim, its accompanying performance and composite parts – costumes, script and music – convey the wonderfully dizzying spectrum of womanhood and make the compelling case that no remedy need ever be sought. – Isabel Parkes

Laura Langer

Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland

4 September 2022 – 27 November

For ‘Headlines’, her solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Glarus, Laura Langer has chosen the spiral as a leitmotif for her series of 19 paintings which hang along the walls of the institution’s upper level (Spiral 1 – Spiral 19, 2022). Each canvas depicts one black acrylic spiral painted over a layer of silver marker pen. While the sizes of the canvases vary, the format of the black spirals is unchanging. Viewed up close, the paintings, with their irregular black lines and visible traces of an underlayer of purple, feel erratic. Yet, when perceived as an ensemble, the effect shifts and the works gain consistency – Langer’s use of seriality here demonstrating its capacity to alter people’s perceptions. – Gabriela Acha

Camille Henrot

Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway

Until 26 February 2023

The title of the show ‘Mouth to Mouth’ has many meanings. There’s the idea of resuscitation but also of embracing, kissing, devouring and being devoured, of breastfeeding and being fed, of the roots of sexuality. Kissing comes from the mammalian instinct to suckle: it’s the first thing we do when we’re born. We kiss because we used to suck. And kissing is as primal as survival or as essential as breathing. The title also carries the idea of gossip, which I love. Whispering, chit-chatting. Gossip is such an involute concept because it’s considered a ‘feminine’ manner of communication and coated with the idea of futility, prejudice and judgment. – Camile Henrot in conversation with Estelle Hoy

‘Mettere al Mondo il Mondo’

Thomas Dane, Naples, Italy

1 October – 23 December 2022

Dominating the gallery’s central space are stark, silver-hued constructions by Ser Serpas, consisting of bed frames, chandeliers and exercise bikes salvaged from nearby rubbish dumps. Interested in inverting perceptions of value, the artist has a long-established process of searching for discarded materials within the vicinity of her exhibition venues, which she then uses to assemble a work on site, making context an intrinsic part of how each piece develops. Here, Serpas props her works against the classical columns of the room (jurisprudence for the ones taped down, 2022) and explores the sculptural properties of balance (forever falling over, 2022). – Allie Biswas

Richard Jackson

Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland

2 September – 23 December

Bursts of red, yellow, teal and pale blue oil paint splatter shy of targets emblazoned on four pieces of paper, while a fifth sheet, positioned at the centre of the others, remains unscathed. Richard Jackson’s Nice (1998), currently on view in his solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, likens painting to shooting practice and positions his oeuvre as one that deliberately misses the mark. Prompted by declarations of painting’s demise during the 1960s heyday of minimalism and conceptualism in which he came of age, the Los Angeles-based artist has dedicated his career to developing and staging processes that expand the parameters of the medium. – Camila McHugh

_{Main image: Leila Hekmat, ‘Female Remedy’, 2022–23, installation view, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin. Courtesy: the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin; photograph: Frank Sperling}