Founded in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia has evolved into one of the most prestigious international cultural institutions, bringing together artists, curators, critics, collectors, and visitors from across the globe. Spread throughout Venice’s iconic canals, palaces, churches, and exhibition spaces, the Biennale is far more than a traditional art exhibition. It serves as a platform for dialogue, experimentation, and cultural exchange, fostering encounters between diverse artistic practices and perspectives. The 61st International Art Exhibition to continue this tradition while addressing the complexities of the contemporary world through innovative forms of artistic expression.
Curated by Koyo Kouoh under the title In Minor Keys, the exhibition is grounded in a profound belief in artists as interpreters of our social and psychological realities and as catalysts for new forms of connection and possibility. Rather than offering a direct commentary on current events or presenting a catalogue of global crises, the exhibition proposes an alternative path: a radical reconnection with art’s essential role in society through emotion, perception, imagination, and sensory experience.
The curatorial vision unfolds through artistic practices that open portals between worlds, nurture relationships, and create spaces for reflection and transformation. The exhibition’s structure deliberately embraces both harmony and dissonance, drawing inspiration from the improvisational nature of jazz. Like a collective ensemble, the participating artists create a dynamic and multilayered experience where different voices coexist, intersect, and resonate.
Visitors are invited on a visual and meditative journey through a series of immersive environments that encourage wonder, contemplation, dreaming, and reflection. Rather than overwhelming audiences with information, In Minor Keys seeks to renew and fortify the senses, allowing visitors to engage with art on a deeply personal and emotional level.
At the heart of the exhibition lies a critique of the dominant narratives that have shaped modernity. The relentless pursuit of growth, productivity, and economic expansion has often marginalized local, Indigenous, and alternative forms of knowledge, while reducing artistic practices to decoration or commodity. Against this backdrop, the Biennale proposes a shift in attention toward what curator Koyo Kouoh describes as the “minor keys”, the quieter frequencies, overlooked voices, and hidden spaces where new possibilities for coexistence and care are already emerging.
The exhibition brings together artists, poets, performers, and filmmakers whose practices embody these values. Their works move fluidly across disciplines, scales, and mediums, creating universes that challenge conventional boundaries between art and life. These artists are not simply observers of society; their practices are deeply embedded within it, offering generous and hospitable visions of community, imagination, and shared experience.
Ultimately, In Minor Keys functions as a collective score, a composition created together with artists whose work expands the possibilities of perception and understanding. Through a rich interplay of visual, sensory, and emotional experiences, the 2026 Venice Biennale invites visitors to slow down, listen differently, and discover the transformative potential that exists in the spaces between certainty and imagination.
NOTE:
After the premature passing of Koyo Kouoh in May 2025, with the full support of her family, La Biennale di Venezia decided to carry out her Exhibition, with the purpose of preserving, enhancing and widely disseminating her ideas and the work she pursued with such dedication to the very end. Koyo Kouoh, nominated as the Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Department in November 2024, already developed the curatorial project, defining its theoretical framework, selecting the artists and the artworks, designating the authors of the catalogue, determining the graphic identity of the Exhibition and the architecture of the exhibition spaces, and establishing a dialogue with the artists invited to participate.
In Minor Keys is the title chosen by Koyo Kouoh for the 61st International Art Exhibition, as specified in the curatorial text, which was sent to the President of La Biennale on 8 April 2025. The Exhibition will be realised with the contribution of the team selected by Koyo: Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira and Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter and Rory Tsapayi.
61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia. In Minor Keys.
until 22th November 2026
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Giardini / Arsenale / Forte Marghera - 30124 Venezia
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