The Venice Biennale, one of the world's most prestigious art events, has long been a mirror to global socio-political currents. For its 61st edition in 2026, the late Cameroonian-Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh envisioned a radical departure: a shift away from what she called the “anxious cacophony of the present chaos” toward softer tones of emotion, connectivity, and grounding. Her theme, 'In Minor Keys,' is now being realized by her team following her untimely death in May 2025.
A Polyphonic Framework for Slow Engagement
Kouoh's concept weaves together five interconnected motifs: Shrines, Procession, Schools, Rest, and Performances. These are underpinned by values of quietude, nurture, intimacy, and reflection. The central exhibition, spread across the Giardini and the Arsenale, features 111 artists and offers a framework for national pavilions to explore similar ideas. Visitors are invited to move through the show in a meditative state, reconnecting with the soulful, sensory, and spiritual—to “tune in sotto voce.” As Kouoh wrote in her manifesto, this is a space where “time is not corporate property nor at the mercy of relentlessly accelerated productivity.”
The exhibition explores how connectivity can emerge unconsciously, through affinities between unrelated artists and movements—an expansion of what Kouoh termed “relational geography,” defined by encounters and the memories they create.
Oases, Gardens, and Sonic Prayers
A central conceit is the introduction of “an archipelago of oases”: spaces rich with memory and emotion that were central to major artists' universes. These include Issa Samb's former courtyard on Rue Jules Ferry in Dakar, Marcel Duchamp's last studio where he worked in secret for 20 years, and Werewere Liking's Village Ki-Yi MBock in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Another imaginative space is the garden, both experiential and metaphorical, designed as a place of sustenance and reconnection. For example, Linda Goode Bryant's Still Life takes the form of an urban farm, tended to by formerly incarcerated women throughout the exhibition.
Kouoh's Schools motif functions as a kind of garden for learning and creativity, represented by artist-led organizations such as Raw Material Company in Dakar, GAS Foundation in Lagos, and the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institution. These institutions share “an ethos to convene, share knowledge, to stay a while, to take apart, to sow seeds of intent, and build centres that proliferate without the intervention of commercial markets.”
Several national pavilions have been transformed into spaces of contemplation. The Holy See Pavilion features a sound-based experience inspired by the writings of 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, allowing visitors to listen to a “sonic prayer” as they meander through a cloistered 17th-century garden. For Qatar, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has designed a tent-like structure for cultural exchange, with a film by Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria, live performances by Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui, a large-scale sculpture by Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid, and a culinary programme of Middle Eastern cuisine by Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan.
Processions and Collective Participation
Kouoh's Procession motif celebrates human connection and collective participation. Artists including Big Chief Demond Melancon, Nick Cave, Alvaro Barrington, Daniel Lind-Ramos, and Ebony G. Patterson explore gatherings whose purposes range from circadian celebrations and rituals in diasporan centers to communions between the living and the ancestors. Carnival is represented as “a stitch in time where relations of power are momentarily subverted and scrambled.” Established norms in art history and classical literature are subverted in the work of Johannes Phokela, Tammy Nguyen, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Sammy Baloji, and Godfried Donkor.
The installation of the central exhibition by Wolff Architects draws inspiration from Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Toni Morrison's Beloved, creating a visitor experience that is more sensory than didactic, encouraging intimacy and interaction. The Japan Pavilion also embraces participation with Grass Babies, Moon Babies by Japanese American queer artist Ei Arakawa-Nash. Upon entering, visitors are invited to carry one of 200 baby dolls through the Pavilion's pilotis, gardens, and interior spaces, changing their diapers and activating a QR code that delivers a “diaper poem” based on each baby's assigned birthday.
The Biennale's focus on slow engagement and nurture comes at a time when the art world is grappling with geopolitical tensions, as seen in recent protests over Russia's return to the Biennale amid the Ukraine war. For more on that, see our coverage of Pussy Riot and FEMEN's protest. Meanwhile, the Biennale's existential fight against rising seas continues to shape the city's future, as explored in Venice's struggle with climate change.
