The 61st Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh, opens on 9 May 2026

The Biennale Arte 2026: In Minor Keys is now open in Venice, marking the 61st International Art Exhibition curated by the late Koyo Kouoh.

Curatorial Vision
- Kouoh developed the entire framework before her passing in 2025, and her team carried it forward to honor her vision.
- The exhibition emphasizes relationships, enchantment, commoning, and generative practices, weaving together artists from Dakar, Beirut, Paris, Nashville, and beyond.
- Literary inspirations include Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, grounding the show in themes of memory, magical realism, and thresholds between lifeworlds.

Key Motifs
- Shrines: Tributes to Issa Samb and Beverly Buchanan, celebrating art as generative and beyond objecthood.
- Processions: Inspired by Afro-Atlantic carnivals, challenging hierarchies and archives.
- Schools: Artist-led ecosystems of learning and social responsibility.
- Rest & Oases: Spaces of contemplation, reconnection, and engagement with non-human life.

Global Participation
- 110 artists, duos, and collectives from diverse geographies.
- Performances include a Poetry Caravan procession in the Giardini, honoring Kouoh’s 1999 journey from Dakar to Timbuktu with African poets.
- Special projects at Forte Marghera and the Applied Arts Pavilion expand the exhibition’s reach.

Design & Atmosphere
- Wolff Architects (Cape Town) designed transformative thresholds marked by indigo banners.
- The catalogue features contributions from over 100 authors, blending essays, studio images, and literary “Invocations.”
- Visual identity draws on komorebi—the Japanese term for dappled light through leaves—expressed in subtle greys and gradients.

Sustainability
- La Biennale continues its carbon neutrality efforts, focusing on renewable energy, reuse of structures, vegetarian options, and low-impact transport.

This edition is deeply personal, almost spiritual, positioning art as a way to rediscover proportion, humility, and human connection. Kouoh’s legacy resonates throughout, making In Minor Keys not just an exhibition but a collective act of remembrance and renewal.