VENICE BIENNALE 2026 IN A MINOR KEY, A CURATORIAL VISION BY KOYO KOUOH
Titled In Minor Keys, the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale will be held from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The announcement was made this Tuesday at the Sala delle Colonne in Ca’ Giustinian, the institution’s headquarters, where it was confirmed that the exhibition will follow the vision and project conceived by the late Senegalese curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away unexpectedly on May 10.
“An invitation to shift to a slower gear and tune in to the frequencies of the minor keys,” stated the Biennale during the presentation of an edition that stands as a tribute and testament to Kouoh’s intellectual and emotional legacy. The exhibition will be carried out exactly as she envisioned, with the support of her family and the team that accompanied her throughout the process. Between October 2024 and May 2025, Kouoh worked intensely on shaping the conceptual and formal framework of the show, selecting the artists, works, catalogue authors, and exhibition designers.
The curator placed her focus on the minor keys, which she described as “small islands, worlds amidst oceans with distinctive and infinitely rich ecosystems, social lives articulated— for better or worse— within broader political forms and ecological challenges.” This exhibition is an invitation to listen to the earth’s persistent signals and the pulse of life, “tuning in to the soul’s frequencies,” as Kouoh explained in her curatorial text.
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Koyo Kouoh. Cortesía La Biennale di Venezia
The curatorial team, who will remain involved in the project, includes Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi.
According to the Biennale, Kouoh envisioned an exhibition gathering artists who are “exceedingly generous and hospitable to life,” and proposed “a radical reconnection with art’s natural habitat and role in society: that is the emotional, the visual, the sensory, the affective, the subjective.”
The full project presentation—including the list of participating artists and countries, the exhibition design, and graphic identity—will take place in Venice on February 25, 2026. The Biennale also announced a new collaboration with Bvlgari, which will serve as exclusive partner of the exhibition for three consecutive editions. The 2026 edition is additionally supported by main sponsor illycaffè and partner Vela – Venezia Unica.
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