Yang Fudong’s filmic and photographic works explore the search for identity and belonging of his young generation, born during and after the Cultural Revolution, in contemporary Chinese society, during a time of great change. Anxieties and tensions, nostalgia and hope: all are captured in his dreamlike sequences, often filmed in black and white, calling forth associations with film noir. Multiple relationships and storylines compete, intertwine and confuse, leaving the viewer in a state of suspension, mirroring the uncertainty felt by Yang and his friends. This mid-career survey provides an important US introduction to an artist set to make his mark.

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, until 8 December 2013. 

Van Gogh spent two years of his short but productive ten-year career as an artist living in Paris with his brother Theo, an art dealer and gallerist. Arriving there in 1886, Van Gogh was still painting from a dark, sombre palette, but, thanks to his exposure to the brighter colours of the Neo-Impressionists, his own palette began to change. This small but worthy exhibition charts his progression during this pivotal period, and contextualises it by displaying works by his friends and contemporaries, including Angrand, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin.

Eykyn Maclean, London, until 29 November 2013.

The 24 artists selected for Body & Soul: New International Ceramics are using clay – traditionally made into vessels and decorative objects – to sculpt powerful responses to social injustices, environmental devastation and the day-to-day pain of living in an imperfect world. “It’s not a pretty show,” says co-curator Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, referring to images focused on female circumcision, gun violence and abuse. Some works reveal the sinister side of genteel society, others give voice to silent suffering. All invite viewers to engage with the critical personal and social issues of our times. Artists include Mounir Fatmi, Sana Musasama, Tip Toland, Marc Alberghina, Jessica Harrison and Kim Simonsson.

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, until 2 March 2014. 

The Van Abbemuseum, established in 1936 and one of the first public collections devoted to contemporary art in Europe, has changed all its permanent display and will disclose its new exhibition, Once Upon a Time … The Collection Now, to the public in November. The extensive circuit of more than 600 artworks will begin with a Picasso from 1909 and cover every decade of the 20th and 21st century. The museum will also innovate by giving details of when each piece was exhibited first and presenting the critical reviews and interpretations it has received since then. Van Abbemuseum’s collection includes works by Oskar Kokoschka, Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol and many other 20th-century artists alongside artists’ archives and recent artworks, such as the new acquisition of photos by Yael Bartana.

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, from 2 November 2013. 

Fernand Léger’s masterpiece The City (1919), in which the French painter represents, with vibrant colours, the chaos and movement of the urban environment, is the starting point of Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis. As a man who saw with optimism the growth of cities and was passionate about the innovations of his time – the end of the 19th to the mid 20th century, Léger died in 1955 – he would probably enjoy the multimedia presentation of his oeuvre in this show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The selection of artworks also includes films, theatre, graphic and advertising design by Léger and other modernist artists who welcomed the technological novelties of the early 20th century.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, until 5 January 2014. 

The word “Agora”, which in Ancient Greece referred to a public open space where people could gather to debate, is the title of the fourth Athens Biennial (AB4). The international exhibition brings together more than 70 artists to present their works at different sites in the Greek capital. The highlight of the show is a comprehensive daily programme of discussions, workshops, roundtables, educational programmes and participatory projects that invite the public to reflect critically on the current situation of the host country and other global issues.

Athens Stock Exchange and other locations, Athens, until 1 December 2013. 

Always working with photography, the American artist Cindy Sherman is also the sitter in most of her images. These are no self-portraits, though, because she creates characters and narratives depicting diverse stereotypes found in contemporary society. Sometimes, she also recreates historical personas and surreal fictional figures. The exhibition Cindy Sherman – Untitled Horrors explores a dark side of her work, from her earliest series to her recent society portraits and murals.

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, until 19 January 2014. 

An exponent of what is called “matter painting”, the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, who died last year, developed a particular style of artwork with thick layers of paint and a distinctive use of textures and materials that he applied to the canvas surface. It is no wonder that he had also created sculptural objects. The exhibition Antoni Tàpies: From Object to Sculpture (1964-2009) displays nearly 100 artworks that bring to light Tàpies’ personal artistic vocabulary when he produced three-dimensional art.

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, until 19 January 2014.

Unstable Territory – Borders and Identity in Contemporary Art is a new group show at the Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina in Florence that urges the visitors to think about a hot topic in politics and art – territory. To unpick the various meanings that the notion of territory conveys, artists from 10 countries, including South Africa and Japan, were invited to explore the theme through photographs, videos and installations.

Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina, Florence, until 19 January 2014.