CURATED by Hayward Gallery’s Ralph Rogoff, May You Live in Interesting Times is the title and organising principle of this year’s Venice Biennale.

The phrase itself, deployed across the political spectrum from as far left as Bertholt Brecht and as far right as Hillary Clinton, references a presumed ancient Chinese curse, although there is no trace of it in Chinese.

The more astute artists on show translate “interesting” as horrifying, blood-curdling and perilous, while others seem to reaffirm Rogoff’s catalogue description of the phrase as “complex” and, in so doing, come dangerously close to reaffirming a virtual utopia or simply wallowing in the chaos that the combination of climate disaster, impending recession and continual appropriation of more resources by the wealthiest have wrought.