Julie Mehretu's twentieth BMW Art Car transforms the new BMW M Hybrid V8 racecar into a dynamic work of art that only becomes complete once it races. Drawing inspiration from her monumental painting Everywhen, the Ethiopian-American artist reimagines speed, blur and movement as the car inhales the painting and becomes something else entirely. I meet the artist at Centre Pompidou.

Running independent of the Venice Biennale, Personal Structures gives voice to communities often overlooked by the art world's main stage. Across three historic Venetian locations, over 200 contributors from 51 countries explore pressing contemporary challenges, from Gaza to Roma heritage to female sexuality. Sara Danieli, head of art at European Cultural Centre, explains how deliberate curatorial freedom allows artists to speak authentically, creating unexpected dialogues that value diversity over didacticism.

Refik Anadol is questioning how we understand artificial intelligence through vast datasets sourced from the natural world. The pioneering digital artist creates living, breathing artworks that blur the boundaries between technology and ecology, inviting us to reconsider what it means to be human in the age of machine intelligence. His immersive installations, built from billions of images of rainforests and coral reefs, challenge us to see AI not as nature's replacement but as a tool for deeper ecological understanding.

At almost 90, Esther Mahlangu remains a fearless force in contemporary art. Her first retrospective at the Iziko Museums of South Africa celebrates six decades of work that transforms traditional Ndebele geometric designs into a bold contemporary practice, anchored by the iconic 1991 BMW 525i Art Car that made her the first woman and first African artist in the celebrated series.

Tomás Saraceno asks visitors to surrender their phones at the entrance to his Serpentine exhibition—a small sacrifice for full immersion into his intricate world of spider webs and environmental activism. The Berlin-based artist has spent over a decade observing spiders, questioning who truly owns this planet. His practice moves between art, science, and indigenous knowledge, weaving urgent questions about how we might better cohabit Earth with other species.

Pietro Ratti was only 20 when his father Renato passed away, inheriting not just a winery but a legacy. Renato had mapped the Barolo appellation in the 1960s, transforming Italian wine from "a simple alcoholic beverage" into an intellectual pursuit. Now Pietro continues that vision at the family estate in La Morra, where Nebbiolo comprises 60 percent of plantings across sixty hectares. His approach honours his father's philosophy: long maceration, large barrels for elegant aging, intimate guest experiences. I went to Piedmont to meet the winemaker.