The 2026 Venice Art Biennale will go ahead according to Koyo Kouoh’s vision.
Just over two weeks after the death of the appointed curator, the project she conceived was presented to the press in the Sala delle Colonne at Ca’ Giustinian. In an atmosphere of deep emotion, the team she had selected confirmed that the 61st International Art Exhibition will take place in continuity with her work, exactly as she had envisioned it.
Refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys
Koyo Kouoh
“In Minor Keys” — the title assigned to this edition by the curator — takes shape as a radically intimate project. Conceived in every detail by Kouoh before her passing, it will be carried forward as a living correspondence by the working group she appointed: advisors Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti, editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter, and assistant Rory Tsapayi.
The chosen title draws from the language of music: minor keys — often associated with melancholy, fragility, and depth — here become a way to tune into the quietest yet most meaningful vibrations, even amid the noise.
The exhibition imagined by Kouoh refuses the spectacle of horror, choosing instead to move along subtler, lower frequencies that demand careful listening. “Refusing the spectacle of horror,” Kouoh writes, “the time has come to listen to the minor keys.”
Her intention is to slow down, to “be with love, with poetry, with art.”
“We are tired. We need something else. We need radicality, we need joy. The time has come.”
The exhibition presents itself as a litany, a chorus of multiple voices which, while acknowledging the complexity of the present and ongoing global crises, knows that denunciation alone is not enough, and instead seeks to reconnect the viewer with their own interiority. An invitation to slow down, to be moved, to remain.
We need the radicality of joy. The time has come.
Koyo Kouoh
What we can expect from the 61st edition of the Venice Art Biennale is, above all, a profound statement of trust in art and in artists: lucid interpreters of the social, psychological, and cultural conditions of the present, and at the same time catalysts of new ways of inhabiting the world.
In this sense, the practices selected by Kouoh do not settle for being mere objects of observation; they take shape as thresholds — porous passages that open up worlds, generate relationships, and transform those who engage with them.
The Biennale shaped by Kouoh already presents itself as a manifesto — beginning with an exhibition approach that offers no guide or explanation, but rather an experience to inhabit. A show that is more sensorial than didactic, more relational than interpretative, one that relies on empathy, presence, and attentive listening.
It is an attitude that draws more from jazz than from curatorial precedents — a genre explicitly referenced in the introductory text for the edition, written by the curator herself — and from its way of responding to the unpredictable through improvisation. An aesthetics of openness, one that embraces complexity without reducing it, and responds to disorder by welcoming emergent forms.
On this occasion, La Biennale di Venezia also announced a new partnership with Bvlgari, which, starting with the 61st edition, will serve as Exclusive Partner of the International Art Exhibition for three consecutive editions: 2026, 2028, and 2030. illycaffè is confirmed as the main sponsor of the 2026 Art Biennale, alongside Vela – Venezia Unica as sponsor.
The list of invited artists, the visual identity, the exhibition design, and the participating countries will instead be revealed during the official presentation on 25 February 2026.