Artists

Joseph Kosuth

Press release

Joseph Kosuth (born 1945) is among the leading exponents of conceptual art and has placed language at the center of his practice, both as content and as an object of analysis. The Venetian exhibition brings together historical works and a new installation conceived for the main entrance of the exhibition space titled A Chain of Resemblance (2026), a large-scale intervention based on a text by Michel Foucault. The work addresses how meaning takes shape in the relationship between text and context, highlighting how language is influenced by the environment in which it appears. The second floor houses a selection of works from the 1960s, including One and Three Mirrors (1965), considered among the artist's most incisive works. The installation articulates meaning through the relationship between image, object and text, with the viewer's reflection entering the work's device and becoming an integral part of it. Three adjacent rooms present works that question authorship and redefine notions of audience, community, and collaboration. The exhibition is curated by Mario Codognato and Adriana Rispoli for Berggruen Arts & Culture and Berggruen Institute Europe. Kosuth lived and worked in Venice from 2021 to 2025 and has participated in eight Art Biennale editions, including representing Hungary's pavilion in 1993.