Thomas Ruff: A Mindmap on Photography opens on November 8 at the Lishui Photography Culture Center. Spanning over forty years, the exhibition traces Ruff’s journey from early series like Interiors and Portraits to conceptual works such as Nudes, JPEGs, and Substrates. Presented as a “mental map” of his thinking, the show explores photography’s boundaries and its role in shaping how we see and understand the world. The opening coincides with the Lishui Photography Festival, featuring an award ceremony honoring Ruff, a public conversation with the artist, and a series of talks on contemporary photography.

• Lishui Photography Culture Center
• 583 Kuocang Road, Lishui City, China
• 7 novembre 2025 – 28 febbraio 2026

Artist Wael Shawky’s monumental bronze sculpture Crush is now permanently on display at the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung in Hamburg. The six-metre-tall, four-and-a-half-tonne work explores the changing relationship between humans and animals — from wild to domesticated, from adversary to companion — highlighting the contradictions and tensions of coexistence over time. Positioned at the entrance to the Botschaft der Wildtiere (Embassy of Wild Animals), which opened in summer 2024, Crush complements the foundation’s interactive exhibitions, Germany’s first nature film cinema, and educational programs aimed at fostering a deeper connection with wildlife.

• Botschaft der Wildtiere
• Lucy-Borchardt-Straße 2, 20457 Hamburg, Germania

"Becoming the Sea" presents a sweeping survey of Anselm Kiefer’s work, gathering major loans from museums and private collections across the United States. At its heart is a vast, site-specific installation inspired by the Mississippi and Rhine Rivers—two waterways that carry powerful associations of memory, transformation, and time. The exhibition explores Kiefer’s enduring fascination with nature, history, and myth, tracing the river as a metaphor for the flow of life and the passage of civilizations. Through monumental paintings, sculptures, and landscapes, Kiefer layers materials such as lead, ash, clay, and dried flowers to create richly textured surfaces that evoke both decay and renewal. This immersive presentation invites viewers to reflect on how geography and history intertwine, revealing Kiefer’s poetic vision of humanity’s relationship to the earth and the persistence of memory.

• Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA
• One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri 63110-1380
• 18 ottobre 2025 – 25 gennaio 2026