Matthew Barney’s work SCABACTION, 1988, is included in the 16th Gwangju Biennale, You Must Change Your Life. Inspired by the final line of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Archaic Torso of Apollo, the Biennale explores how new capacities and forms of life emerge through artistic practice. SCABACTION is Barney’s first video work, made while he was still an art student, and is rarely screened publicly. It introduces themes that would become central to Barney's later practice, including the body as a site of transformation, construction, and the interaction with materials and apparatuses.

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Works by Matthew Barney, Katharina Grosse and Thomas Struth are included in A Thousand Times Berlin at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Marking the museum’s 30th anniversary, this exhibition presents a new iteration of the collection focusing on Berlin’s art scene in global dialogue from 1989 to today. Featuring over 70 works by more than 50 artists, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and video installations, the exhibition reflects Berlin’s myth of hedonism and subculture in an international context.

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Works by Matthew Barney, Glenn Brown, Victor Man, Danielle Mckinney and Albert Oehlen are included in the inaugural exhibition, Don’t have hope, be hope! at Isola di San Giacomo, the new location of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Venice. San Giacomo will become a place for producing artistic projects and hosting research and discussions on art, music, cinema, theatre and contemporary culture. Surrounded by the delicate ecosystem of the lagoon, the island will serve as a laboratory for ecological reflection, where the principles of sustainability and energy transition will be put into practice.

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SECONDARY is a five-channel video installation by Matthew Barney, performed in the artist’s Long Island City studio in 2023, then in London, Paris, and Los Angeles in 2024. The plot revolves around an accident that occurred during a football game in 1978, when Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum delivered an open field hit on Darryl Stingley, a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. Stingley was left paralysed. The tragic event remained seared in the minds of American fans, including Barney himself, a youth-league quarterback at the time.

Through allusion to American sports culture, SECONDARY explores the complex intersection of violence, its representation, and its celebration. It reimagines the game through a unique movement vocabulary. The result is a physical study that focuses on every element of the game, from drills and pre-game rituals to moments of impact and their slow-motion replays.

Volume 1 explores SECONDARY in depth, with essays by leading contemporary voices. Volume 2 maps the life of Barney’s former Long Island City studio, where SECONDARY premiered to the public.

Contributions by Eric Banks, Jonathan Bepler, Raven Chacon, Mark Godfrey, Juliette Lecorne,  Helen Marten,  Maggie Nelson, and David Thomson
Author: Matthew Barney
Edited by Louise Neri

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Work by Matthew Barney and Raymond Hains will feature in the group show Exposition générale, at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, from 25 October. Exhibiting works from their extensive collection, Exposition générale showcases both the Fondation Cartier’s artistic identity and its legacy, presenting nearly six hundred works by more than one hundred artists who have participated in its programming from 1984 to the present day.

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We congratulate Matthew Barney on becoming an Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Matthew Barney has been elected into the Department of Arts and will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters during its annual Ceremonial in May 2024.

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