Padiglione Rosso

On September 19, the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR) inaugurates the exhibition “Flying Carpets” by Thomas Ruff & Transylvania & Anatolia, curated by Erwin Kessler and open until February 28, 2026. The show brings together 15 Anatolian carpets from the 16th–18th centuries, preserved in the collections of MNAR in Bucharest and the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, alongside 15 contemporary carpets by Thomas Ruff from his d.o.pe series, inspired by Aldous Huxley’s The Gates of Perception. Ruff’s works, created through digital manipulation and fractal software, are printed on neutral fabrics with abstract, colorful patterns that suggest organic colonies, cosmic formations, and oriental decorative fantasies. The exhibition highlights the encounter between tradition and modernity, and between the local and the global, offering a reflection on the hybridity of the present.

• National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
• 19 settembre 2025 – 26 febbraio 2026

We are pleased to announce Shirin Neshat’s return as director of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida for the 25/26 season stage of Opéra Bastille in Paris. The show, first performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2017, underwent a number of changes when it was revived in 2022 and will be presented in a further reworked version in September 2025 at the Paris Opera, making it a work of art that is constantly evolving, so that it continues to resonate with the contemporary world. How to choose between love for an enemy general and love for one’s homeland? Such is the dilemma faced by Aida, an Ethiopian princess enslaved in Egypt, who also has to contend with the rivalry of Amneris, the Pharaoh’s daughter, who loves the same man as her, Radames. Yet it is proud Amneris who begs the priests to pardon Radames after he unwittingly betrays a military secret. In this work, first performed in 1871 at the Cairo Opera, Giuseppe Verdi alternates epic scenes such as the famous triumphal march with more intimate arias such as “Celeste Aida”. While the context of the work’s creation owes much to the Egyptomania in vogue in the 19th century, the themes of Aida are as timeless as they are universal. This is reflected in the staging by Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat, who, making her Paris Opera debut, emphasizes the cruelty of religious fanaticism, so swift to oppress women.

• Opéra Bastille
• 24 settembre – 4 novembre 2025

On September, 2025, the international festival of performance art, dance, music, and theater returns to L’Aquila with an edition dedicated to language, identity, and relationships. Among the highlights on Friday September 12, is Domenico Antonio Mancini’s performance, Il nostro zucchero quotidiano, taking place from 12:00 to 2:00 pm and from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. This itinerant action unfolds across the city on an ape – the iconic three-wheeled vehicle of Southern Italy’s street vendors – transformed into a poetic device. Instead of market calls, its loudspeaker will broadcast the words of Mahmoud Darwish, creating a new and unexpected urban soundscape. In the afternoon, starting at 5:00 pm, the performance will stop at the piazza of the Accademia di Belle Arti, inviting the public to share in a collective moment of listening and reflection.

• MAXXI L'Aquila
• 12 settembre 2025

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is presenting Kentridge’s output in three locations at once. The focus is on his preoccupation with processions as a metaphor for human community(ies). The Kupferstich-Kabinett in the Residenzschloss is exhibiting a broad selection of his prints. In the Albertinum, the video projection ‘More Sweetly Play the Dance’ (2015) is set in relation to the large-format preparatory drawings (1869-1876) for the famous, 100-metre-long porcelain tile painting of the Dresden Procession of Princes. Other smaller presentations in the palace link Kentridge's themes to the princely collections. In addition, the Centre for the Less Good Idea, founded by Kentridge in Johannesburg, is curating the 2025–26 iteration of the annual Puppet Theatre Collection exhibition at Kraftwerk Mitte in Dresden.

• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
• 6 settembre 2025 – 18 gennaio 2026

To mark William Kentridge’s 70th birthday, Museum Folkwang in Essen and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) will jointly present Listen to the Echo, opening in September 2025. The project offers a comprehensive overview of the South African artist’s multifaceted practice. In Essen, the exhibition traces Kentridge’s development from the late 1970s to today, featuring works from the Drawings for Projection series alongside prints, sculptures, tapestries, and multi-channel film installations. Themes include South Africa’s complex history, colonialism, and the role of the artist’s studio as a space for collective creativity. In Dresden, three venues are involved: the Kupferstich-Kabinett presents a wide range of prints; the Albertinum shows More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015) in dialogue with the monumental Procession of Princes; and the Puppet Theatre Collection at Kraftwerk Mitte is curated by Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea. A ceremonial procession with choir and band will accompany the opening. Organised in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibitions are accompanied by a joint catalogue published by Steidl Verlag.

• Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
• 3 settembre 2025 – 18 gennaio 2026

"The End of the World" is Alfredo Jaar’s first exhibition at the gallery, focusing on the impact of extractive industries and the global supply chains of critical minerals (like lithium, cobalt, and copper). At its center is the work The End of the World (2023–2024), made from ten essential minerals used in modern technologies. The exhibition denounces the environmental, social, and geopolitical consequences of resource extraction, while proposing a new relationship with the Earth — one of ecological collaboration rather than exploitation. Created after five years of research with political geologist Adam Bobette, the piece is presented in a monumental space, where scale and light give the work and its message the weight it deserves.

• Le Patinoire Royale Bach, Brussels, Belgium
• 4 settembre 2025