The inaugural Medina Triennial is an excellent exhibition with an identity crisis. ‘All That Sustains Us’, curated by Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo, considers how systems of maintenance and care are shaped by the same social and environmental structures they are created to support. 

While the curators admitted during the opening walkthrough they had hoped to do more with outdoor locations, it does feel like a missed opportunity that so few pieces interact with the region-defining canal and waterfall. The main exhibition, by contrast, is robust, telling stories of hypothetical climate futures, as in Alice Bucknell’s science fiction video installation Staring at the Sun (2024–25), and underscoring interspecies connections and non-human artists, as in Aki INOMATA's (ACC 2015) series of sculptures based on wood chewed by beavers and beetles (‘How to Carve a Sculpture’, 2018–ongoing).

Read more about Aki's art and the exhibition coverage on Frieze Magazine here.