Europe’s museums and galleries are presenting a season of ambitious exhibitions that push the boundaries of installation, performance and experiential art. From pioneers of the Brazilian avant-garde to artists redefining ecological practice, game-changing British choreographers, and politically charged multimedia works, these shows invite audiences to engage with creativity from the inside out. Together, they highlight the inventive, urgent and immersive directions art is taking today. This is a December not to be missed.
Lygia Pape. Weaving Space
Pinault Collection, Paris | Until 26 January
Lygia Pape (1927–2004) is recognised as one of the leading figures of the 20th-century Brazilian avant-garde, alongside Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica. Now, Pinault Collection stages the first solo exhibition of Pape in France. It centres around a major work, Ttéia 1, C (2003/2025), in which shimmering copper wires are stretched across the gallery space. The piece changes with shifts in light and appears different with each step visitors take. As such, it embodies Pape’s concept of “weaving space”, and her commitment to rethinking how audiences encounter art. This display also features early abstract engravings, the iconic Livro Noite e Dia III [Book of Night and Day III] (1963-1976), and a selection of experimental films.
Arts of the Earth
Guggenheim Bilbao | 5 December – 3 May
Branches, leaves, roots, soil and wood. These are the materials-of-choice in Arts of the Earth, which highlights a century of eco-conscious creativity. It draws from major movements, including Arte Povera, Conceptualism and Land Art, highlighting how creatives across generations and cultures have responded to the state of the natural world. Its long list of names includes Ana Mendieta, Gabriel Orozco, Giuseppe Penone, Joseph Beuys, Richard Long, Sumayya Vally and Tomás Saraceno. There are living grass sculptures by Hans Haacke, experiments with extraterrestrial soil by Oscar Santillán and Mel Chin’s land reclamation project Revival Field. In the face of climate crisis, these works feel more pertinent than ever before.
Shilpa Gupta. we last met in the mirror
Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lübeck | Until 1 March
Indian artist Shilpa Gupta (b. 1976) addresses crucial questions facing today’s world: belonging, censorship, freedom of expression, human rights, language, religion and security. Borders are central to her practice, and, for over two decades, she has explored their impact on public life. Kunsthalle St. Annen is the first museum in Germany to present a major solo exhibition of Gupta’s work. we last met in the mirror spans several decades and multiple media, from interactive sound videos and robotic installations to light works and public performances. Here, Gupta, who is the recipient of the Possehl Prize for International Art, connects the local and global, challenging Eurocentric narratives in the process.
Sea Garden
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens | Until 8 February
This exhibition, like Arts of the Earth, centres on humanity’s impact on the natural world. It brings together works that bear the marks of industry and intervention: landscapes that echo human bodies, are tainted by toxins or scorched dry by the sun. Featured artists include Ana Mendieta, Athena Tacha, Catriona Gallagher, Claude Cahun, Dora Economou and Margaret Raspé. Tacha, who transforms pebbles, petals and shells into sculptural forms, is a key focus. Her approach resonates across time and genre: Gallagher uses moving image to investigate the gardens of Sparoza; Cahun adopts nature as a tool to resist fixed ideas of gender and identity; and Mendieta – perhaps most famously – impresses her own body into the land.
Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies
Somerset House, London | Until 22 February
This landmark exhibition is the the culmination of Somerset House’s 25th anniversary celebrations. It highlights internationally acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor (b. 1970), who is renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance. He has collaborated with world-leading artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians such as Gareth Pugh, Max Richter, Nick Knight, Radiohead and The Chemical Brothers. The exhibition unfolds as a series of multi-sensory installations, performances and experiments, all of which ask big questions, like “What does the human body mean in the age of AI?” Plus, throughout the exhibition, Company Wayne McGregor will be in residence – activating installations in real time.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Company Wayne McGregor (Jasiah Marshall) with No One is an Island (2021) Random International + Wayne McGregor + Chihei Hakateyama. Part of Wayne McGregor Infinite Bodies exhibition at Somerset House. Photo by Ravi Deepres.
2. Lygia Pape, Ttéia 1, C, 2003-2017, golden thread, wood, nails, light, variable dimensions. Pinault Collection. Photo: Pedro Pape © Projeto Lygia Pape. Courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape.
3. Sumayya Vally, Counterspace Grains of Paradise , 2024 Wooden canoe with painted coating 510 x 50 x 95 cm Courtesy of the City of Vilvoorde, Belgium © Sumaya Valley, Bilbao 2025 Photo: Brugues Triennial 2024/ Filip DujardinSumayya Vally ,Counterspace Grains of Paradise, 2024 Wooden canoe with painted coating 510 x 50 x 95 cm Courtesy of the City of Vilvoorde, Belgium © Sumaya Valley, Bilbao 2025 Photo: Brugues Triennial 2024/ Filip Dujardin
4. Shilpa Gupta, I Live Under Your Sky Too, 2004 – ongoing © Shilpa Gupta courtesy the artist and neugerriemschneider, Berlin photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
5. Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Volcano Series No2), 1979. Collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens | ΕΜΣΤ. Presented as part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift.
6. Company Wayne McGregor (Rebecca Bassett-Graham and Jayla O’Connell) with No One is an Island (2021) Random International + Wayne McGregor + Chihei Hakateyama. Part of Wayne McGregor Infinite Bodies exhibition at Somerset House. Photo by Ravi Deepres.
