What to See Across Europe This Autumn

Judy Chicago | LUMA Foundation, Arles, France | 30 June – 29 September

A small watercolour caught my eye at the entrance to ‘Herstory’, Judy Chicago’s current survey at the LUMA Foundation, Arles. In this drawing, part of the 140-work series ‘Autobiography of a Year (1993–94)’, a crudely rendered woman is about to be hit on the head by a man holding a mallet. An accusation in a mix of loopy cursive and capital letters encloses her from above and below. ‘You make BAD ART,’ the text reads. ‘IT HURTS.’

While he may not have held a mallet over Chicago’s head, the critic Hilton Kramer must have caused real offence to the artist when he asked in his New York Times review of her eponymous 1980 show at the Brooklyn Museum: ‘Is The Dinner Party even art?’ Before concluding that, even if it was art, it was bad art. Of course, Chicago had the last laugh. The Dinner Party (1974–79), a ceremonial banquet table set with plates dedicated to influential women throughout history, is now permanently installed in its own room of the museum. – Chloe Stead 

Lynn Hershman Leeson | Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany | 11 April – 2 February 2025

As I approach a pedestal, a mysterious voice says: ‘You think you’re so clever. I see you.’ Atop the plinth is a wax cast of the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson’s face, replete with a glass eye and synthetic hair. This whispering work, Paranoid (1968–2022), from the series ‘Breathing Machines’ (1965–2022), establishes the visitor as both astute observer and voyeur. Nearby, a corridor is lined with a number of black and white photocollages of women’s body parts combined with machines (from the series ‘Phantom Limb’, 1985–90); at the end, a doll sits in a vitrine, seemingly looking in my direction (CybeRoberta, 1996). Only upon nearing the doll do I realize it is actually surveilling me: her eyes have been replaced with cameras, the livestream footage from which plays on a tiny TV and is also available to view via a corresponding website. – Emily McDermort

Šejla Kamerić | Cukrarna, Ljubljana, Slovenia | 19 June – 13 October

In 2000, as part of Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana, Šejla Kamerić created the site-specific installation EU / Others (2000), in which she positioned two double-sided signs, resembling checkpoints, above the heads of pedestrians on parallel bridges in the city centre. The signs, which read ‘EU Citizens’ and ‘Others’, effectively ‘categorized’ the unwitting participants in one of the two groups as they crossed the bridges.

Almost a quarter of a century later, a version of EU / Others is again on view in Ljubljana, this time as part of the Bosnian artist’s survey show ‘Perfect Tense’ at Cukrarna. Presented as a single lightbox and hung from the ceiling, this reinterpretation of the piece, made in 2021, slowly spins 360 degrees in a dim corridor, as if to suggest that, all these years later, we are still trapped in a cycle of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. It’s a theme that is evident throughout the show, which brings together 12 works, created over more than two decades, which reflect on the personal and historical trauma caused by military conflicts, such as the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–96), in which Kamerić’s father and uncle were killed. – Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas

Cecilia Jiménez Ojeda | Standard (Oslo), Norway | 23 August – 21 September

Most people’s living spaces are subject to the pressures of everyday life rather than a coherent design brief. Clutter and dust accrue, while fixtures and surfaces might be worn, outmoded or haphazardly repaired. In her first solo show with Standard (Oslo), Swedish artist Cecilia Jiménez Ojeda depicts the nooks and crannies of a family member’s time-worn apartment. Simply titled ‘Interiørdetaljer’ (Interior Details), the exhibition includes seven hyperdetailed and naturalistic graphite-pencil drawings based on photographs, each smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. 

True to the show’s title, the drawings are close-ups, leaving the overall layout and size of the apartment undisclosed. In Uten tittel (Rør) (Untitled [Pipe], all works 2024), two narrow pipes are held against the wall by a hefty bracket, an electrical wire curving up and around them. The bulky bolt anchoring the bracket looks blurry, its edges smudged and out of focus. This is not a defect of the drawing, but a result of Jiménez Ojeda’s exacting reproduction of the reference photo, tell-tale optical distortions included. – Nicholas Norton

‘Casa Vale Ferreira’ | Serralves Villa, Porto, Portugal | 11 July – 17 November

‘Casa Vale Ferreira’ at Serralves Villa is the first anthological exhibition of the duo João Pedro Vale + Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, who have been working together for over 20 years. Their works fill almost all corners of the art deco former private residence, including the kitchen and bathrooms. Although their practice is defined by a diversity of media, from imposing sculptures to neon signs and small installations, the non-chronological layout of the exhibition emphasises its enduring characteristic: the artists’ committed battle against the marginalisation of LGBTQ+ bodies and identities. – Sara De Chiara

^{Main image: Lynn Hershman Leeson,The Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman Leeson 1984–2019 (detail), 1984–2019, video still. Courtesy: the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco}